-
2-5-03: ScientistsBriefly
Reverse Brain-Cell Aging Drugs Temporarily Make Old Visual BrainCells Act
Young in Animal Tests. New research suggests thatby boosting
levels of a brain chemical to squelch excess transmission ofnerve signals,
doctors someday may be able to help elderly people by reversingbrain-cell
aging that can cause declines in vision, hearing, memory andother cognitive
and motor skills. In a study of monkeys in the May 2 issueof the journal
Science, scientists from the University of Utah and fromChina report they
were able to reverse age-related deterioration of nervecells in the brain's
visual cortex for several minutes when the researchersadministered a neurotransmitter
named GABA or a similar chemical namedmuscimol. "The ramifications of this
are to correct brain degradation inthe elderly. That is significant to
every human being," says AudieLeventhal,
chief author of the study and a professor of neurobiologyand anatomy
at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
-
1-5-03: Il caffèminaccia
le foreste indonesiane: Molte specie animali e vegetalisarebbero
in pericolo di estinzione.
Timothy O’Brien, ecologo della WildlifeConservation
Society (WCS), lancia un grido di allarme: il mercatointernazionale
del caffè, con i suoi prezzi non regolamentati, rischiadi minacciare
l’esistenza di preziose foreste nell’isola indonesiana diSumatra.
In un articolo pubblicato sulla rivista “Science”, O’Brien e lacollega
Margaret Kinnaird descrivono la crisi come parte di un problemapiù
ampio, che coinvolge tutte le regioni del mondo dove si coltivail caffè.
Anche se la richiesta da parte delle economie occidentaliè più
alta che mai, ben poco del ricavato giunge nelle taschedei coltivatori.
Per esempio, gli Stati Uniti spendono ogni anni 70 miliardidi dollari in
caffè, ma ai coltivatori giungono solo 5,5 milionidi dollari. Secondo
lo studio, le nazioni più ricche e in particolaregli Stati Uniti,
il più grande consumatore mondiale di caffè,dovrebbero intervenire
per armonizzare il mercato internazionale. L'articolodel
WCS precisa che Seventy percent of Lampung’s coffee productionoccurs
inside and adjacent to Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, oneof a few
remaining strongholds of Sumatran tigers, elephants and rhinoceroses,all
of which are declining due to fragmentation and loss of their foresthome.
Speciedi
primati presenti nel BukitBarisan
Selatan National Park: Agile gibbon (Hylobates agilis),Siamang
(Symphalangus syndactylus), Banded leaf monkey (Presbytis melalophos),Silvered
leaf monkey (Trachypithecus cristatus), Long-tailed macaque (Macacafascicularis),
Pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina), Western tarsier(Tarsius bancanus).
Impresionante l'elenco delle altre specieanimali
presenti, fra cui tigri e rinoceronti
-
26-4-03: Si è concluso il 73rdannual
meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologistsin
Tempe, Arizona; come sempre, moltissima primatologia fra le 682 comunicazioni
(cercando ' primate' dal databaseescono
253abstracts).
Programma
dellle sessionidel congresso.
Volumecojmpleto
con abstract delle comunicazioni e dei poster (1663KB).Gli italiani
di solito non frequentano questo congresso, ma fra i 10 lavoripresenti
dagli italiani (quasi tutti romani...) c'è anche un lavoroprimatologico
(Patterns of variation of the internal architecture ofthe primate proximal
femur).
-
24-4-03: Festa per il pensionamento di LarryJacobsen,
direttore del PrimateCenter
Library and Information Service (importante punto di riferimentoinformativo
per tutti i primatologi) del WisconsinPrimate
Research Center (University of Wisconsin- -Madison). Dalle16 alle
19 a Madison (University Club, UW-Madison Campus, WI) .....
-
22-4-03: L'analisi del cariotipo di una specie di Platirrina (Callicebuslugens,
della famiglia Cebidae) riduce a 16 il numero minimo dicromosomi
trovato fra i primati (prima era 20, sempre nel genere Callicebus).L'articolo
uscirà prossimamente nel 3' fascicolo 2003 di Folia Primatologica:The
Lowest Diploid Number (2n =16) yet Found in Any Primate: Callicebuslugens
(Humboldt, 1811) Cibele R. Bonvicino et al., Rio de Janeiro) FoliaPrimatol
2003;74, 3
-
22-4-03: Midlandmining
expert to aid gorillas (By Campbell Docherty, BirminghamPost):
The
existence of gorillas in an African country is beingthreatened by the growing
market for mobile phones - and a Midland miningengineer has been using
his expertise to try and help secure the animals'future. The traditional
home of lowland gorillas and elephants in the DemocraticRepublic of Congo
is an area rich in tantalum, a mineral used to make componentsfor mobile
phones, computer games consoles and other electrical goods.And as the appetite
for the latest mobiles grows around the world, thearea is being overrun
by miners and groups looking to cash in. So a Staffordshire-basedmining
expert, backed by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, undertook a gruellingjourney
to the war-torn African country to look for ways to protect therapidly
dwindling colony of lowland gorillas. Kevin D'Souza, aged 32, principalmining
engineer with Newcastle-under-Lyme consultants Wardell Armstrong,spent
two weeks near the Kahuzi Biega National Park, a vast area of rainforestand
mountains now controlled by warring military and militia factions.
-
18-4-03: Thebushmeat
crisis is emptying Africa's forests (ENN): ....Tobe hunted
sustainably, some ape species could lose no more than one memberper square
kilometer every 20 years, but bushmeat hunters are annuallykilling 6,000
western lowland gorillas (from a total population of lessthan 100,000)
along with 15,000 chimpanzees. Smaller primates windup on the table,
too, with approximately 7.5 million red colobus monkeysbeing killed for
food each year. "The numbers are just huge," Bennett said,especially when
hoofed animals are taken into account: WCS estimates that28 million bay
duikers are killed annually, as are 16 million blue duikers."And these
are conservative figures."
"Areas that had been previously unexploited and unpopulated aresuddenly
inundated, and every worker may bring 8 or 10 individuals whoare dependent
on that salary," said Heather Eves, director of the BushmeatCrisis Task
Force (BCTF), a consortium of more than 30 organizations andinstitutions
formed in 1999 to address the looming problem. "This bringslots of people
together who need to be fed, and the forests just open up."
Logging roads have also allowed the influx of shotguns and steelcable
for snares and have enabled hunters to carry more carcasses out ofthe forest.
As a result, a burgeoning commercial bushmeat market now stretchesfar beyond
the Congo Basin.
-
17-4-03: NewWWF
report shows how European banks contribute to the destruction of aforest
jewel in Sumatra (Tesso Nilo forest) . Ina new
reportpublished
today, WWF shows how several European banks and companies havebeen contributing
to the destruction of Tesso Nilo, one of the world'srichest rainforests,
located on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The study,"ElephantForests
On Sale", shows that already 64 percent - or 315,000 hectares-
of the Tesso Nilo forest, one of the last refuges for the threatenedSumatran
elephants and a unique centre of plant diversity, have been convertedinto
vast industrial plantations since the middle of the 1980s.
-
14-4-04: Fra i vincitori del '2003Goldman
Environmental Prize' c'è OdighaOdigha
(video),della
Nigeria, che si è impegnato nella protezione delle forestedel Cross
River al confine fra Cameroon e Nigeria, dove vive una varietàdi
Gorilla (G.g.diehli) da tempo isolata rispetto alle altre zone di diffusione.OdighaOdigha,
46, a Nigerian forest activist and educator, is leading the campaignagainst
devastating industrial logging in the forests of Cross River Statein southeastern
Nigeria. These are the last 5% of remaining rainforestsin Nigeria and are
home to 2,400 native forest communities comprising 1.5million people, the
highest primate diversity on the planet—including theworld’s most endangered
gorillas, and an estimated 20 percent of the world’sbutterfly species.
Due anni fa il premio (una specie di Nobel per gli attivisti ambientali)fu
vinto per l'africa da EugèneRutagarama
(video),che
difendeva i gorilla di montagna nel difficile momento in cui la zonaera
affollata da eserciti in guerra.
-
14-4-03: EbolaHemorrhagic
Fever in The Republic of the Congo - WHO Update 11.Asof Mon
14 Apr 2003, the Ministry of Health has reported 140 cases, including123
deaths, in the districts of Mbomo and Kelle in Cuvette Ouest Departement.13
of the cases are laboratory-confirmed and 127 are epidemiologicallylinked.
The most recent 9 reported cases lived in the same remote villageof
Ndjoukou (in Kelle district) and occurred within the last 2 weeks. 12contacts
have been identified in this village and are being visited ona regular
basis by national Red Cross volunteers
-
11-4-03: NUCLEAR TRANSFER: MisguidedChromosomes
Foil Primate Cloning (Gretchen Vogel) Whilegovernments
debate how to prevent human reproductive cloning, it seemsthat nature has
put a few hurdles of its own in the way. A team (CalvinSimerly, Tanja
Dominko, Christopher Navara, Christopher Payne, SaverioCapuano, Gabriella
Gosman, Kowit-Yu Chong, Diana Takahashi, Crista Chace,Duane Compton, Laura
Hewitson, and Gerald Schatten: Molecular Correlatesof Primate Nuclear
Transfer Failures, Science Apr 11 2003: 297) reportson Science Magazine
that in rhesus monkeys, cloning robs an embryo of keyproteins that allow
a cell to divvy up chromosomes and divide properly.Unpublished data from
this and other groups suggest that the same problemmay also thwart attempts
to clone humans. Simerly et al. studiedthe outcome of somatic
and embryonic cell nuclear transfer in 716 rhesusmacaques oocytes. Although
the nuclear transfers looked normal, the implantof 33 embryos in surrogates
resulted in no pregnancies. To identify themolecular obstacles responsible
for this failure, they used imaging andimmunochemical techniques to examine
basic embryonic cell structures andproteins. DNA and microtubule imaging
showed disarrayed mitotic spindleswith misaligned chromosomes. In addition,
two of the key proteins involvedin spindle pole assembly and functioning
— NuMA and HSET — were absentafter nuclear transfer (from Biomedcentral).
Nello stesso numero di Scienceun
altro lavoro sui primati: ChromosomalSpeciation
and Molecular Divergence--Accelerated Evolution in RearrangedChromosomes
(Arcadi Navarro, Nick H. Barton): Humans andtheir closest evolutionary
relatives, the chimpanzees, differ in ~1.24%of their genomic DNA sequences.
The fraction of these changes accumulatedduring the speciation processes
that have separated the two lineages maybe of special relevance in understanding
the basis of their differences.We analyzed human and chimpanzee sequence
data to search for the patternsof divergence and polymorphism predicted
by a theoretical model of speciation.According to the model, positively
selected changes should accumulate inchromosomes that present fixed structural
differences, such as inversions,between the two species. Protein evolution
was more than 2.2 times fasterin chromosomes that had undergone structural
rearrangements compared withcolinear chromosomes. Also, nucleotide variability
is slightly lower inrearranged chromosomes. These patterns of divergence
and polymorphism maybe, at least in part, the molecular footprint of speciation
events in thehuman and chimpanzee lineages.
-
5-4-03: Thailand Saturday, April 5, 2003. (AP Photo/ApichartWeerawong)
Twomonkeys
sit on the back of a pickup truck while being transported homeafter finishing
their collecting coconuts in Chumporn province
-
  4-4-03:CatastrophicDecline
of Africa's Apes: Gorilla e scimpanzé rischianoseriamente
di scomparire nell'arco di pochi decenni, decimati dal virusmortale di
Ebola, oltre che per la distruzione del loro habitat. L'allarmeè
stato lanciato sulle pagine di Naturedalla
Wildlife
Conservation Societysulla base di uno studio che smentisce precedenti
rilevamenti che indicavanocome stabile le popolazioni di grandi primati
nell'Africa equatoriale.Osservando la popolazione del Gabon, gli scienziati
hanno riscontrato uncalodel 56 per cento nel numero dei gorilla dal
1983 al 2000. Un dato ancorapiù preoccupante se si pensa che
questo paese è una tra lepoche aree incontaminate della Terra, conservando
ancora l'80 per centodella originaria copertura boschiva. Per questo gli
esperti del Wcs ritengonoche il declino delle grandi scimmie non sia ristretto
al Gabon. Nella confinanteRepubblica del Congo e in paesi limitrofi con
più alta densitàumana e maggiore deforestazione l'habitat
è ancor più a rischio.Anni di guerra civile e le attività
di estrazione del legno, hannofavorito il consumo locale della carne di
animali selvatici, il "bushmeat",compresi gorilla e scimpanzé. Un'ulteriore
minaccia è l'epidemiadi febbre emorragica di Ebola, esplosa dieci
anni or sono, che secondoi ricercatori potrebbe aver danneggiato diecimila
esemplari tra scimpanzée gorilla (recensione tratta daGalileo).Articolosu
Nature.
Unnuovo sito web gestito dagli autori del lavoro citato si occupa di
Apese di Ebola:
http://www.apeebolacrisis.org/.In
questo sito si trova l'articolooriginale
e altro materiale, fra cui alcuni links interessanti suldeclino delle antropomorfe
(EbolaInformation),
fra cui anche il materiale presentato al recente workshopa Brazzaville
e la mappadell'epidemia
nei primati e nell'uomo. L'articolo originaleè eccezionalente
accessibile anche in Nature.
Altre informazioni e pubblicazioni si trovano nella pagina su Ebolanel
sito di ECOFAC.Frai
gravi danni conseguenti all'epidemia di Ebola, la scomparsa di due gruppidi
Gorilla abituati alla presenza umana e quindi utilizzati per sostenerel'economia
della zona con le visiteturistiche:
Deux des familles manquantes avaient étéhabituées
pour le tourisme de vision de gorilles. Ces primates étaientles
premiers gorilles de plaine en Afrique centrale à avoir jamaisété
habitués et généraient des revenussignificatifs pour
les villageois. Le sanctuaire de Lossi avait étécréé
à la demande des villageois quand ils ont réaliséque
les revenus à long terme du tourisme de vision étaientde
loin supérieurs aux bénéfices à court termeprocurés
par la chasse. La disparition de ces gorilles est une énormeperte
pour ces populations.Tutto da rifare.
-
4-4-03: EbolaHemorrhagic
Fever in the Republic of the Congo - WHO Update10. As of Wed
2 Apr 2003, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of theCongo has reported
135 cases, (13 laboratory-confirmed and 122 epidemiologicallylinked), including
120 deaths in the districts of Mbomo and Kelle in CuvetteOuest Departement;
34 contacts are being followed up. Since the WHO UpdateNo.9, which covered
the period up to Sun 23 Mar 2003, the number of casesof Ebola fever has
increased by 12 from 123 (13 laboratory confirmed) to135 (still only 13
laboratory confirmed) and the number of deaths by 7,from 113 to 120. The
number of contacts being followed up, however, hasdeclined from 79 to 34,
which suggests that the outbreak may be comingunder control.
-
4-4-03: E' in via di chiusura in Israele la primate breeding factorydi
Manzor, che produceva primati esportati soprattutto in Ingiilterra perla
ricerca biomedica. Il ministero dell'Ambiente ha infatti racomandatoalla
locale commissione CITES di non fornire permessi di importazione edesortazione
di primati. La notizia è comparsa su Lab Animal Europenel numero
di aprile 2003.
-
3-4-03: E' disponibile, consultabile on line nel sito della NAPlaseconda
edizione del volume NutrientRequirements
of Nonhuman Primates: Second Revised Edition (2003,308 pp.), curato
dal Committee on Animal Nutrition, Ad Hoc Committee onNonhuman Primate
Nutrition, National Research Council. This new releasepresents the wealth
of information gleaned about nonhuman primates nutritionsince the previous
edition was published in 1978. With expanded coverageof natural dietary
habits, gastrointestinal anatomy and physiology, andthe nutrient needs
of species that have been difficult to maintain in captivity,it explores
the impact on nutrition of physiological and life-stage considerations:infancy,
weaning, immune function, obesity, aging, and more. The committeealso discusses
issues of environmental enrichment such as opportunitiesfor foraging.
NB: Nel sito della NAP utilizzandola
parola chiave 'primates' escono altri 33 volumi consultabili on line...
-
2-4-03: FossilTeeth
Reveal Oldest Bushbabies, Lorises. A small collectionof
teeth and jaw fragments sifted from the Egyptian desert has providedthe
earliest fossil evidence for one of the three major lines of primates.The
tiny fossils offer evidence that the ancestors of bushbabies and lorisesappeared
during the Eocene epoch that lasted from 55 million to 34 millionyears
ago -- at least twice as early as previous fossils had shown. Thesefossils
represent the oldest known “toothcombed” prosimians -- a groupthat also
includes the lemurs of Madagascar. The other two primate groupsare anthropoids
(monkeys, apes and humans), and tarsiers. The fossils werecollected on
a 2001 expedition led by paleontologists from the EgyptianGeological Museum
and Duke University, and are described in the March 27issue of Nature.
The paper is co-authored by Erik Seiffert and Elwyn Simonsof the Duke Primate
Center Division of Fossil Primates and Yousry Attiaof the Egyptian Geological
Museum. Their research is supported by the NationalScience Foundation,
the Leakey Foundation and the Egyptian Geological Surveyand Mining Authority.
-
2-4-03: Sito web del FERN: FERNis
a non-governmental organisation (NGO) created in 1995 by the World RainforestMovement.
NGO representatives from different European countries make upour board
and we work closely with many national and international NGOs.FERNpromotes
the conservation and sustainable use of forests and respect forthe rights
of forest peoples in the policies and practices of the EuropeanUnion.
We co-ordinate several NGOnetworks
and
works co-operatively to achieve change. Currently, ourmain campaign areas
are climate change, forest certification, export creditagencies, WTO &
trade agreements, intergovernmental agendas, aid &development o-operation
and rights of forest peoples. For more informationabout these issues visit
our Campaignspage.
-
1-4-03: PapuaNew
Guinea Groups Split with WWF Over Forests. Protests from fivePapua
New Guinea environmental and legal groups have prompted the WorldWide Fund
for Nature (WWF) to reconsider support for the controversialland mobilization
policies of the World Bank and a proposed high levelforest summit on forest
conservation.
A leaked WWF South Pacific proposal revealed the organization wantedWorld
Bank funding for a proposed forest summit aimed at building supportfor
eco-forestry and better forest management in PNG, the Solomon Islandsand
the Indonesian province of Papua, but intended to keep the source ofthe
funding secret. The eight page memo proposed seeking funding from theWorld
Bank’s Forests of Life program, which was jointly established withWWF five
years ago. However, WWF proposed that the role of the World Bankreferred
to by the acronym ‘WB’ should be invisible.
-
1-4-03: Ebolathreatens
Africa's lowland gorillas Ebola fever, whichhas killed
114 of the 128 people who have caught it in the latest outbreak,threatens
one of the last strongholds of the endangered lowland gorilla,the Zoological
Society of London said yesterday.
The disease is estimated to have killed between 600 and 800 westernlowland
gorillas, almost 2/3 of the population in the Lossi sanctuary,south
of Odzala national park in the Congo Republic. It has also killedan unknown
number of chimpanzees -- see here
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says thousandsof
great apes might have died in recent years. The disease was confirmedin
north-west Congo in December [2002] when 6 gorillas from a family thathad
been followed by researchers for 6 years were found dead. There remainsa
danger that the virus, which has been in Congo and Gabon sporadicallyfor
5 or 6 years, will infect the Odzala population of 20 000 gorillas.It could
cross again into neighbouring Gabon, another hotspot for gorillasand chimpanzees,
said Jonathan Baillie, manager of a Zoological Societyof London project
in Gabon. There are estimated to be about 80 000 westernlowland gorillas
in Gabon and the Congo. They represent 80 percentof the world's gorilla
population. Mr Baillie, a Canadian-born zoologist,said: "Ebola now combines
with hunting for bushmeat and logging as a riskto the great apes."
-
1-4-03: Global Witness è una ONG che svolge indaginie
produce relazioni a sostegno delle sue iniziative che riguardano direttamenteo
indirettamente problemi di conservazione di ambienti in cui vivono iprimati:
Global
Witness is one of few non-governmental investigativeorganisations working
to expose the link between natural resource exploitationand human rights
abuses. We operate in areas where environmentally destructivetrade is funding
conflict or human rights violations. We collect the evidenceand use it
to achieve long-term change. I suoi interessi non riguardanoinfatti
solo la conservazionedelle
foreste tropicali in Africa e in Asia (interessanti i linksad
altri siti) , dato che si preoccupa anche dei conflitti africani legatial
commercio dei diamanti(Africa
Occidentale) e del petrolio(Angola).
Interessanti i reports,tutti
disponibili e utilizzabili per scopi di difesa dei diritti umanie dell'ambiente.
Interessanti links: http://www.illegal-logging.info/,http://www.eia-international.org/,(dove
si può scaricare il video "Illegallogging
in Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesia" da 10MB), http://www.salvonet.com/eia/campaigns2_reports.shtml(alcuni
reports sulla distruzione delle foreste in Indonesia), Telapak(una
NGO indonesiana; reportsin
PDF nel sito), TheTimber
Mafia (sito web complesso sul disboscamento in Kalimantan, gestitoda
giornalisti australiani; ci sono anche videodi
interviste a B.Galdikas e visite alla foresta, fotografiedi
un viaggio attorno al Parco Nazionale di TanjungPuting,
dove la foresta è stata trasformata in savana, e unamappainterattiva).
L'Italia è uno dei paesi verso cui è direttoil commercio
illegale del ramin,inserito
dal 2000 nell'appendiceIII
della CITES.
-
31-4-03:Non e' il petrolio ma l'olio di palma che minaccia la sopravvivenzadegli
oranghi in Indonesia e in Malesia. Sitoinformativo
anche riguardo ai prodotti che derivano dalla distruzione delleforeste
in cui vivrebbero gli oranghi.
-
30-3-03: Nel sito web dell'AAPci
sono le informazioni su un santuario per scimpanzè in via dicreazione
vicino ad Alicante (Spagna). Stanno anche cercando qualcuno interessatoa
dirigere i keepers. AAP sanctuary for exotic animals, is a Europeanshelter
for exotic animals, situated in Almere in The Netherlands. Everyyear it
provides a temporary
home for hundreds of animals in need. AAP is in touch with naturereserves
and reputable zoos all over the world and is currently home to130 primates,
including chimpanzees. AAP is expanding its facilities toinclude a new
permanent lifetime care centre for primates in Europe, Primadomus.This
new facility is situated in a mountain area, about 10 km inland ofthe Costa
Blanca, near Alicante in Spain, where the climate allows forexcellent primate
housing conditions. At Primadomus we will be able toprovide permanent housing
and care for primates within Europe, for exampleex-lab animals, confiscated
illegal trade victims and rejected 'pet-monkeys'.Primadomusis currently
being developed and will receive a group of ex-lab chimpanzeesat the end
of 2003.
-
29-3-03: Nel sito del bollettinoN.67
(febbraio 2003) del WorldRainforest
Movement si racconta di uno scambiodi
lettere fra Karl Amman e Wolfensohn,presidente
della Banca Mondiale sul ruolo della Banca Mondiale rispettoal problema
del controllo dello sfruttamento commerciale delle foreste,a cui è
legato il declino di molte specie di antropomorfe in Africacentrale anche
a causa dell'uso a scopo alimentare (bushmeat) chesi aggiunge alla
distruzione dell'habitat.
K.Amman denounces that in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)the
World Bank appears to be on the front line of assisting with a proposedmassive
reactivation of the forestry sector. According to Ammann, the projectionsoutlined
by a World Bank expert, in an Aide Memoire, "are terrifying tosay the least,
considering that we are looking at the remaining half ofthe Congo River
Basin which has not been affected yet by industrial timbermining:
- The opening up, in form of new logging concessions, of 60 millionhectares
of primary rain forest.
- A projected annual extraction/mining of some 6-10 million cubicmeters,
essentially doubling the output from the Central African region.
- An estimated annual 'surface rental tax' income of some U$ 60to
360 million.
- An annual industry turn over of some U$ 1-2 billion. Mostly ofcourse
staying in form of profits in some off shore accounts.
- The creation of some 60,000 jobs.
How realistic are these projections in the context of the resultsbeing
achieved --partially under World Bank supervision-- in any of thesurrounding
countries? Bank officials are best placed to answer this questionand some
more regarding the actual cost-benefits of logging of primaryrain forests.
Based on the figures I have they are clearly a pipe dream.However pipe
dreams put out officially by World Bank experts will makeany conservation
effort --especially the creating of additional protectedareas-- a lot more
difficult".
Full texts available:
- "An Open Letter to the World Bank President", 7 December 2002;http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Congo/Ammann.rtf
- Response from Emmanuel Mbi, 24 January 2003 http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Congo/WBresponse.rtf
- Reply from Karl Ammann, 24 February 2003 http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Congo/Ammannresponse.rtf
Nelle lettere si cita una relazionedi
K.Amman (1998) sulla caccia ai bonobo organizzata in zonedel
Congo controllate da una ditta tedesca di estrazione di legname tropicale.Questa
relazione si puo' trovare in italiano nell'interessante sito websui bonobo
curato da Lisa Maccari: http://www.paniscus.net
-
26-3-03: EvolutionExplains
Why Chimps Beat us by a Nose (Reuters Health) -Newresearch
shows that humans' sense of smell is much less acute than thatof other
primates. Just why we cannot sniff out scents as accurately asother mammals
remains unclear, but the reason may stem from our gradualreliance on other
senses to provide us with information, researchers suggest.And although
modern humans must now rely on dogs to sniff out drugs andother contraband
at airports, our early ancestors may have been capableof the job themselves,
study author Yoav Gilad told Reuters Health. Inthe past, humans likely
carried noses as keen as modern species with moreacute senses of smell,
he said. People then probably lost that abilityover time. "Immediately
after the separation of the human and chimpanzeespecies, they both had
an identical sense of smell," Gilad explained. (SOURCE:Proceedingsof
the National Academy of Sciences 2003;100:3324-3327)
-
23-3-03: EbolaHemorrhagic
Fever in the Republic of the Congo - WHO Update9- As of Sun
23 Mar 2003, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of theCongo has reported
123 cases, (13 laboratory-confirmed and 110 epidemiologicallylinked), including
113 deaths in the districts of Mbomo and Kelle in CuvetteOuest Departement
[see: Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Congo Rep. (19) 20030314.0629].79 contacts
are being followed up. The new team of 3 physicians and 7 nursesfrom the
Ministry of Health and the Service de Sante des Armees was trainedin clinical
management and safe burial practices last week. A mobile teamis visiting
each village on the Entsiami-Kelle road weekly, carrying outcontrol activities
and surveillance. Social mobilization activities involvingcommunity leaders
are also continuing.
-
18-3-03: The electronic edition of Volume 42, number 2, of the _Laboratory_Primate_Newsletter_will
be sent on Wednesday to subscribers by list-server. Studentsand others
are encouraged to subscribe to this electronic edition, by sendingthe message
subscribe LPN-L [Your Name] to listserv@listserv.brown.edu.The URL for
the Web edition is <www.brown.edu/primate>
-
17-3-03: Creatorof
world's largest rainforest preserve in Brazil dies. JoséMárcio
Ayres, conservation biologist who protected peoplewhile preserving
the Amazon, dies aged 49. José Márcio CorrêaAyres,
a Brazilian zoologist who has been widely credited with saving theworld's
largest swath of protected rain forest, died March 7 in New YorkCity. Ayres,
who was 49, died of lung cancer. At the time of his death,Ayres served
as senior conservation biologist at the Wildlife ConservationSociety, the
global agency based at New York City's Bronx Zoo. But hismost noted accomplishments
were in Brazil, near the confluence of the Solimões(Amazon) and
Japourá Rivers.
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17-3-03: The Republic of the Congo: Numberof
Ebola Cases Now 120 with 108 Deaths: The latest officialfigures
for the Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak, published yesterday,are
120 cases and 108 deaths since January 2003, all in the Cuvette Ouest Departement,
in the northwest of the Republic of the Congo.
Situazione politica sempre poco stabile da quelle parti: oggi un colpodi
stato nella Repubblica Centrafricana, con annesso saccheggio, hamesso
fine, dopo 6 altri tentativi, a 10 anni di potere del presidenteAnge Felix
Patassé, temporaneamente in visita in Niger.
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16-3-03: Interessantissimo weblogsull'evoluzionismo.Si
trovano info aggiornate curate da P.Cocciasu Darwin, Evoluzionismo e Darwinismo.
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15-3-03:Ledifferenze
genetiche fra uomo e scimmia (News da Le Scienze). Articolipublicati
sulla rivista “GenomeResearch”
(Kelly A. Frazer, Xiyin Chen, David A. Hinds, P.V. KrishnaPant, Nila Patil,
and David R. Cox: GenomicDNA
Insertions and Deletions Occur Frequently Between Humans and NonhumanPrimates
Genome Res. 2003 13: 341-346; Devin P. Locke, RichardSegraves, Lucia Carbone,
Nicoletta Archidiacono, Donna G. Albertson, DanielPinkel, and Evan E. Eichler
Large-Scale
Variation Among Human and GreatApe Genomes Determined by Array Comparative
Genomic Hybridization GenomeRes. 2003 13: 347-357; Ge Liu, NISC Comparative
Sequencing Program, ShayingZhao, Jeffrey A. Bailey, S. Cenk Sahinalp, Can
Alkan, Eray Tuzun, EricD. Green, and Evan E. Eichler
Analysis of Primate
Genomic VariationReveals a Repeat-Driven Expansion of the Human Genome
Genome Res. 200313: 358-368) descrivono nuove scoperte che suggeriscono
come la base geneticadelle differenze fra i primati umani e quelli non
umani, come lo scimpanzè,consista nei riarrangiamenti genomici e
non in singoli cambiamenti nelDNA. “Si tratta di una scoperta sorprendente
e importante - afferma DavidCox,
ricercatore della Perlegen Sciences, la società che haeffettuato
lo studio - che getta luce sulle basi fondamentali delle differenzegenomiche
strutturali fra l’uomo e gli altri primati. È un ottimopunto di
partenza per migliorare la nostra conoscenza su cosa rende unicigli esseri
umani”.
Precedenti analisi sulle differenza delle sequenze di DNA di uomoe
scimpanzè avevano mostrato che le due specie sono approssimativamenteidentiche
al 98,5 per cento. Si ritiene dunque che le grandi differenzebiologiche
fra gli umani e gli altri primati dipendano dall’espressionedei geni. Finora
si pensava che singoli cambiamenti nel genoma, e non grandiriarrangiamenti
del DNA, fossero alla base di queste variazioni. “L’analisicomparativa
del genoma di primati umani e non umani - commenta Kelly Frazer,principale
autore della ricerca - è una tecnica utile per decifrarela funzione
di specifiche regioni genomiche”. Il confronto del cromosoma21 umano con
sequenze di DNA di scimpanzè e altri primati ha mostratoun significativo
numero di riarrangiamenti casuali che distinguono il DNAumano da quello
delle altre scimmie. Questo prova che i riarrangiamentisono avvenuti frequentemente
durante l’evoluzione dei primati e che sonouna fonte significativa di variazione
fra umani e scimpanzè.
Dati simili erano stati presentati daR.Britten(Roy
J. Britten: Divergencebetween
samples of chimpanzee and human DNA sequences is 5%, counting indels;PNAS
2002 99: 13633-13635) nell'ottobrescorso:
Humans
and chimps have 95 percent DNA compatibility, not98.5 percent, research
shows
Genetic studies for decades have estimatedthat
humans and chimpanzees possess genomes that are about 98.5 percentsimilar.
In other words, of the three billion base pairs along the DNAhelix, nearly
99 of every 100 would be exactly identical. However, newwork by one of
the co-developers of the method used to analyze geneticsimilarities between
species says the figure should be revised downwardto 95 percent. (vedi
notizia suLeScienze
News)
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15-3-03: EbolaHemorrhagic
Fever in the Republic of the Congo - WHO Update 8 -As of Fri 14
March 2003, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of theCongo has reported
118 cases, (13 laboratory-confirmed and 105 epidemiologicallylinked), including
106 deathsin the districts of Mbomo and Kelle in CuvetteOuest Departement.
-
14-3-03: Al Denver Museum of Nature&
science il 21/3 si apre la mostra "Discoveringchimpanzee,
the remarkable world of J.Goodall". C'è un po'di materiale
informativo sugli scimpanzè disponibile in rete (Unavisita
a Gombe, ecc.) e anche linksad
altri siti sugli scimpanzè.
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13-3-03:Ebolavirus.
Death Toll Reaches 100. The deadly Ebola virushas killed
100 people in the remote forests of Congo Republic and wipedout nearly
2/3 of the gorillas in a reserve. "We have reached the fatefulfigure of
100 dead," Congo's Health Minister Alain Moka said on Tue 11Mar 2003 at
a ceremony to accept donations to help fight the outbreak.The latest Ebola
epidemic to hit the central African country struck inJanuary 2003 in the
dense forest region of Cuvette-Ouest about 440 milesnorth of the capital
Brazzaville. "The government has already spent 300million CFA francs (USD
507 000) to put in place the logistics needed tohelp stricken people but
the state alone cannot help," Moka said. "We musthave the support of everybody
and the international community." Monkeys,chimpanzees, and gorillas started
dying in large numbers toward the endof 2002, and primatologists say the
impact has been devastating on theLossipark in Cuvette-Ouest. At
an Ebola conference in Brazzaville last week,primatologist Bermejo Magdalena
told Reuters that gorillas had beendisappearing at an alarming rate
where she works in the Lossi sanctuary,which covers 123 square miles. "In
the sanctuary of about 1200 gorillaswe are now down to just 450 gorillas.
We have recorded the disappearanceof 600 to 800 gorillas," she said,
adding the outbreak could spreadto the nearby Odzala park and might then
contaminate forests in Gabon."If Odzala is also contaminated by the
epidemic, that's nearly 20 000gorillas under threat. That's very serious,
catastrophic", she said.
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12-3-03: Chimpanzeeswith
little or no human contact found in remote African rainforest:
The
Goualougo Triangle, nestled between two rivers in a Central Africanrain
forest, is so remote that primate researchers who traveled 34 miles,mostly
by foot, from the nearest village through dense forests and swamplandto
get there, have discovered a rare find: chimpanzees that have had verylittle
or no contact at all with humans. The chimpanzees' behavior whenfirst coming
in contact with the researchers was a telltale sign of lackof human exposure
-- the chimpanzees didn't run and hide. DaveMorgan, a field
researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society,Republic of Congo, and
Crickette Sanz, a doctoral candidate in anthropologyin Arts & Sciences
at Washington University in St. Louis, report theirstudy of "Naïve
Encounters With Chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle"in the April
2003 issue of the InternationalJournal
of Primatology. During two field seasons in the Goualougo Triangle(February-December
1999 and June 2000-June 2001), Morgan and Sanz encounteredchimpanzees on
218 different occasions, totaling 365 hours of direct observation.Their
goal, as with other researchers at various field sites in Africa,was to
directly observe the full repertoire of chimpanzee behavior, whichincludes
eating meat, sharing food, grooming, mating and using tools, suchas large
pounding sticks to break open bee hives and leaf sponges to gatherwater.
During Morgan and Sanz's first five minutes observing individualchimpanzees
at their field site, curiosity was the most common responsethe researchers
recorded from 84 percent of the chimpanzees. The curiousresponses from
the chimpanzees included staring at the human observers,crouching and moving
closer to get a better view of them, slapping treetrunks or throwing branches
down to elicit a response, and making inquisitivevocalizations.
Il progetto, iniziato 4 anni fa, è supportato dal ColumbusZoo
e dal WCS. Quila mappa
per orientarsi.
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11-3-03: GOODNEWS
FOR THE WORLD’S FORESTS - Ground-breaking projectsfrom
the UK, Mexico, Tanzania and Malaysia lauded at the launch of a newforest
partnership - Reviving deforested and degraded landscapes so thatthey benefit
local communities is possible if we draw our inspiration fromdiverse forest
restoration success stories around the world. Sharing theseon-the-ground
examples is the motivation behind a new partnership launchedtoday in
Rome by IUCN – The World Conservation Union, WWF, and theUnited Kingdom
Forestry Commission. The initiative – known as the GlobalPartnership
on Forest Landscape Restoration – will be a “meeting point”for governments,
communities, organizations and others the world over whoare engaged or
interested in restoration activities that pave the way forsustainable development.
To bring the Forest Landscape Restoration approachto a broader audience,
the Partnership has started the ForestRestoration
Information Service (FRIS) at http://www.unep-wcmc.org/forest/restoration/homepage.htm.It
aims to provide an open-access internet information service to supportforest
restoration projects world-wide; facilitate exchange of knowledgeand experience
among forest restoration projects, and provide a basis foranalyzing factors
determining success. Nel sito sono disponibili informazionie mappe
delle coperture forestali e delle zone protette.
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7-3-03: FAO: FreshWater
Supplies Depend on Healthy Forests - (ENS) -Theloss of
forest cover and conversion of forested land to other uses candegrade supplies
of fresh water, threatening the survival of millions ofpeople and damaging
the environment, finds a new study issued by the UnitedNations Food and
Agriculture Organization. The study was published todayin advance of next
weeks' (10-14/3) annual meetingof
the agency's Committeeon
Forestry (COFO). The FAO's State of the World's Forests2003
report will be presented at the meeting, and participants will addressissues
of forests and freshwater, a study on the future of forests in Africa,and
a review of FAO programs in the forestry sector. Watershed conditionscan
be best improved if forests are managed with human as well as hydrologicalgoals
as a priority, says the FAO study, "Forestsand
Freshwater - Issues and Options."
A new entity, as yet unnamed, that links forests and water is proposedin
the FAO Medium Term Plan 2004-2009,reflecting
the importance the FAO accords to the conservation of waterresources.
Nel sito altri documenti, fra cui: Thefuture
of forests: implications of the Forestry Outlook Study for Africa
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6-3-03: CongoleseCooks
Shun Bush Meat for Fear of Ebola BRAZZAVILLE, Congo, - Bushmeat
vendors in Ouesso, the largest town in the Republic of Congo's regionof
Sangha, have reported a sharp drop in sales due to consumers havingbeen
frightened by the Ebola virus ravaging a nearby area, a market administratorsays.
This situation has created new consumer patterns with people switchingto
fish, beef or chicken, said Odi-Aya, a teacher in Ouesso. As of Wednesday,89
of the 110 people registered with Ebola in Cuvette-Ouest had died, theWorld
Health Organization (WHO) reported.
There had been an equally devastating impact on primates, PierreAgnangoye,
the coordinator of project to protect the forest ecosystemsof Central Africa,
said. "Of the 800 gorillas alive in the Odzala Packand the Lossi Sanctuary,
just 200 are left," he noted.
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5-3-03: GoldDiscovered
Beneath Ghana's Forest Reserves (ENS) - Dozensof bulldozers
and excavators belonging to five multinational mining companiesoperating
in Ghana are poised to tear apart thousands of hectares of forestreserves
in the Ashanti, Western and Eastern Regions of the country, ifthe government
gives them approval to haul out what they describe as richdeposits of gold
beneath the forests. The forest reserves that the miningfirms are eyeing
include the Subri River Forest Reserve, a globally significantbiodiversity
area which is also the largest forest reserve in the countryand a critical
watershed between major rivers such as the Bonsa and Pra.
- “It is true that we have to preserve the forests," ministerof
Mines Darko said, "but nature has also given us these resources to betapped
and managed for development, so it is the way we go about it inorder not
to offset the balance." “If we say we won’t allow them to minein the reserves,
what signals are we sending to other investors? the ministerasked. "It
means this is a country where investments are not secured, wherethere are
a lot of uncertainties and by the stroke of the pen you can loseyour investments
and monies. So we are at a crossroads and as a nationwhat do we do?" The
minister said, “Some mining companies were given permitsto do prospecting
in the reserves by the past administration. The ForestryCommission, the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and all the relevantstatutory bodies
were party to it. The companies invested millions of dollarsand found gold
deposits in commercial quantities in the reserves. Are wejustified morally
in saying that these mining companies that invested moneyand discovered
the gold should not go into the forest reserves again? Dowe have to leave
those rich deposits of gold there in the ground whilstwe have a lot of
problems on our hands such as poverty, underdevelopmentand unemployment?”
Minister Darko asked.
- The miners, who spoke on condition of anonymity, say they discoveredstaggering
volumes of gold deposits beneath the forests when the previousNational
Democratic Council (NDC) government gave them free rein to scavengethe
forest reserves for gold. But, they complain, the government did notkeep
its promise to grant permits for exploitation of the gold they found.Now
the NDC government is no more, the miners said, and we want the presentNew
Patriotic Party (NPP) government to grant us permits to "throw outthe trees
and the animals in the forest reserves" to make way for full-scalesurface
mining operations. "Fact is, collectively we spent over 10 milliondollars
in the reconnaissance and prospecting exercise, and we have torecoup our
money,” the miners said.
- The environmentalists, who did not want their names used, worrysince
the protected reserves are some of Ghana’s last relatively undisturbednatural
forests. They support forest biodiversity and are critical to waterconservation,
the environmental groups say. Granting of permits for surfacemining in
these ecologically fragile reserves will aggravate the alreadyalarming
rate of deforestation and forest degradation in the country andwreak havoc
on freshwater systems and watersheds, they warn.
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5-3-03: SpecialFocus
on COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE. Nature Reviews Neuroscience announcesthat
the March 2003 issue will include a FREE online focus on cognitiveneuroscience,
featuring articles on memory, decision making, social cognition,visual
processing, novelty and more.
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4-3-03: Republic of the Congo: EbolaCases
Now Number 108 with 88 Deaths. Nearly 90 people have beenkilled
by Ebola virus in the remote forests of the Republic of the Congosince
the latest outbreak of the disease hit this central African countryjust
over a month ago. Congo's Health Ministry said on Tue 4 Mar 2003 that88
people out of the 97 who have so far contracted the disease havedied,
and another 130 people suspected of contact with Ebola fever suffererswere
under surveillance. Ebola virus, which is passed on by infectedbody
fluids, kills between 50 and 90 percent of its victims through massiveinternal
bleeding, depending on the strain of the virus.
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4-3-03: The discovery of fossil remains of a Mioceneape
(Lufengpithecus chiangmuanensis) from Thailand, an unsampledregion
of Asia, adds complication to the long-debated story of the originof orangutans.
(Yaowalak Chaimanee, Dominique Jolly, Mouloud Benammi, PaulTafforeau, Danielle
Duzer, Issam Moussa & Jean-Jacques Jaeger: A MiddleMiocene hominoid
from Thailand and orangutan origins ). Eccezionalmente,accesso libero
all'articolocomparso
in Nature 422, 61 - 65 (2003). Il reperto sarebbe datato 13-10Myr (milioni
di anni fa). Interessante il ritrovamento di flora africanain quel periodo,
che dimostrerebbe la presenza di un corridoio forestale,poi scomparso,
che univa l'Africa all'Asia Orientale, cioè tuttele zone in cui
attualmente sono presenti scimmie antropomorfe.
-
3/3/03: [Da Sciencedaily]Recent
work has emphasized the use of cross-species sequenceanalyses and expression
profiling to identify gene regulatory sequencesin mammals.
Scientists
with the U.S. Department of Energy'sJointGenome
Institute (JGI) in Walnut Creek, Calif., and the Lawrence BerkeleyNational
Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) havedeveloped
apowerful
new technique for deciphering biological information encoded inthe human
genome..
Called "phylogenetic shadowing," this techniqueenables
scientists to make meaningful comparisons between DNA sequencesin the
human genome anD sequences in the genomes of apes, monkeys, andother nonhuman
primates. With phylogenetic shadowing, scientists cannow study biological
traits that are unique to members of the primate family.
"Now that the sequence of the human genomehas
almost been completed the next challenge will be the development ofa vocabulary
to read and interpret that sequence," says Edward Rubin, M.D.,director
of the JointGenome
Institute (JGI) for the U.S. Department of Energy, and BerkeleyLab's
Genomics Division, who led the development of the phylogenetic shadowingtechnique.
"The ability to compare DNA sequences inthe
human genome to sequences in nonhuman primates will enable us in someways
to better understand ourselves than the study of evolutionarily far-distantrelatives
such as the mouse or the rat," Rubin adds. "This is importantbecause
as valuable as models like the mouse have been, there are manyphysical
and biochemical attributes of humans that only other primatesshare."
Using phylogenetic shadowing, Rubin andhis
colleagues were able to identify the DNA sequences that regulate theactivation
or "expression" of a gene that is an important indicator ofthe risk for
heart disease and is found only in primates. The resultsof this research
are reported in a paper published the February28
issues of the journal Science. Co-authoring the paper with Rubinwere
Dario Boffelli, Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Keith Lewis and Ivan Ovcharenkoof Berkeley
Lab, plus Jon McAuliffe and Lior Pachter, of the Universityof California
at Berkeley. VISTAis a set
of tools for comparative genomics. It was designed to visualizelong sequence
alignments of DNA from two or more species with annotationinformation.
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3-3-03:L'Istitutodi
Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione del C.N.R. ha svolto, sottol'egida
del Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca(M.I.U.R.),
un progetto scientifico/didattico dal titolo "Imparare adosservare:
l'analisi critica del comportamento animale". Tale progettoha coinvolto
78 bambini e 7 insegnanti di due scuole elementari di Roma,"F. Ferraironi"
e "Principessa Mafalda". L'obiettivo principale èstato quello di
divulgare il metodo scientifico attraverso cui comprendereed analizzare
la realtà, utilizzando i Primati non umani come modellodi indagine
sperimentale. Il prodotto finale del progetto è statola realizzazione
di un CD-Rom dal titolo "Viaggio nel mondo delle scimmie"e di un libro
dal titolo "Esploriamo il mondo delle scimmie", destinatiai bambini ed
agli insegnanti delle scuole elementari e medie, con l'obiettivodi fornire
strumenti di lavoro ma anche di divertimento, che non trascurinogli aspetti
motivazionali ed emozionali che concorrono sensibilmente alsuccesso formativo.
la giornata di presentazione del progetto siterrà il giorno
lunedi
17 marzo 2003 presso l'Auditoriumdel Bioparco
di Roma. In quell'occasioneverranno distribuiti gratuitamente a tutti
i partecipanti il CD-Rom edil libro sui Primati.
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-Marzo
- Aprile 2003 -