Bits for Pets Blog

A woman from East Sussex who bought an emu egg sold as a novelty food item on a farm on the Isle of Wight has managed to hatch a chick from it.

Gillian Stone, from Bexhill, who breeds chickens, brought home three large green emu eggs from a holiday and put them in an incubator in her kitchen.

Two turned out to be infertile, but after 52 days little Osborne hatched.

He needed to be hand fed at first, but at nine days old he is now thriving and Ms Stone is hoping to get him a mate.

“We decided to risk putting the eggs in the incubator and, after a little bit of help Osborne arrived,” she said.

“He was destined to be an omelette [but] now he’s an emu.”

Osborne will grow to over 6ft tall and will soon move from Ms Stone’s home to her smallholding nearby.

Family friend Jenny Cosham said nothing Ms Stone did surprised her.

“She turns up with all sorts of things,” she said.

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Fewer puffins are going to breed at the UK’s largest colony of the species, on the Isle of May, scientists report.

Numbers are down to about 41,000 breeding pairs this year from almost 70,000 pairs in 2003.

Researchers believe the decline is linked to changes in the North Sea food web, perhaps related to climate change.

Birds are also arriving underweight, which the RSPB describes as “worrying”, because puffins are generally able to feed on a range of creatures in winter.

The Isle of May, in the Firth of Forth, is home to the UK’s largest single puffin colony, although more birds overall nest in the St Kilda archipelago.
Map

Mike Harris, from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, has been monitoring and studying the Isle of May population since the 1970s, labelling individual birds with rings to follow their progress.

After decades of spectacular growth, he now believes the colony is in decline.

The five-yearly count of nesting pairs, which Professor Harris’s team completed in April, revealed the decline.

“Also, we found some birds were coming back later than expected and others were coming in underweight,” he told BBC News.

“And a lot that we knew were alive last year have not turned up at all, so we assume they’re dead - although it’s possible they knew it was a bad year for food and decided not to come back at all.”

The numbers recorded would indicate a population fall of 40%, though because not every single nest can be counted the scientists believe it is more accurate to give a figure of “at least 30%”.

Puffins spend the winters at sea, floating, swimming and diving for food, coming to land only during the nesting season.

In the winters they catch fish, squid, worms and other much smaller marine organisms, which means they are more flexible feeders than other seabirds.
Puffin. Image: MP Harris
Puffins are counted every five years by looking into holes where they nest

“So whatever the problem is, it’s got to be a widespread one,” said Professor Harris.

The suspicion is that climate change is altering the distribution of plankton across the North Sea.

This disrupts the entire food web, including predators such as puffin.

“This fits in with other evidence that North Sea birds have been desperately short of food over several seasons,” said the RSPB’s Grahame Madge.

“But these have been birds such as the Arctic tern and kittiwake which only feed in the top part of the sea.

“This is probably the best adapted seabird that the UK has; they’re deep divers, they’re specialists in going down deep into the water column to find fish, so it’s troubling to find that they’re encountering a shortage of food.”

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THE decline in numbers of farm ponds has left the threatened great crested newt with fewer places to breed and struggling to survive in Scotland.
Now Scottish Natural Heritage is calling on individuals to help out, through the simple act of helping to build a pond in their garden or community.

The great-crested newt, also called the warty newt due to the lumps on its skin, is the largest of Britain’s three newt species and is dark in colour, with a vivid orange belly covered in black spots. The handsome creature has been put on SNH’s Species Action List, as needing conservation action.

In the most recent survey, the newts were discovered in just 100 ponds across Scotland. Although they live most of their life on land, preferring rough grassland and woodland, they need ponds in which to breed.

Before the advent of tractors and taps, farms used to be covered in ponds to provide water for animals, but today there is a shortage of places for the great crested newt to breed.

As part of Scottish Biodiversity Week, SNH is asking animal lovers to help out by getting involved in projects to build ponds for the newts in their town or village, or by simply building a pond in their own garden.

John McKinnell, species management adviser at SNH, said: “They are threatened across Europe due to loss of habitat. A major thing is breeding sites. They breed in ponds rather than streams or lochs.

“They like farm ponds, but agricultural practices have changed over the last century and now there are not the same number of ponds as there used to be. People can help to a certain extent by building ponds in their gardens. The new ponds have got to be close enough to the places where newts live for them to commute.”

He said one of the best ways to help out was by joining a local group such as those within an umbrella organisation called the Amphibian and Reptile Groups of the UK.

They carry out survey work to discover the locations of the newts and build ponds nearby in time for them to breed in spring. The newts usually live within 250 metres of the breeding ponds.

The Lothian Amphibian and Reptile Group and the Clyde Amphibian and Reptile Group have been actively getting involved in surveying newt populations and building new habitats for them and they rely on help from volunteers.

Starting to build a pond now should mean that it will be ready in time for next year’s breeding season. Even if it does not turn out to be near enough to a newt population for it to be used as a breeding site, it will still help plenty of other species of wildlife.

Most great crested newts in Scotland live in Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders, as well as across the Central Belt from Fife to Lanarkshire and around Inverness.

Female great-crested newts lay about 300 eggs, attached to vegetation in the pond. Larvae develop over three months, before leaving the pond and moving on to land.

As well as changing agricultural practices, newt habitats have been threatened due to neglect and mismanagement of ponds. The introduction of fish to a pond is catastrophic for its newt population.

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The RSPB has launched an appeal to help the UK’s fastest declining mammal, the Water Vole by purchasing an extension to one of its wetland reserves near London.

The RSPB’s Rainham Marshes reserve, next to the River Thames, is home to the UK’s largest remaining concentration of Water Voles. Its miles of reed-filled ditches form a stronghold for the species and it is hoped that by extending the reserve, the number of voles can also be increased.

The wetland habitat of Rainham Marshes not only supports Water Voles but also birds that feed on them like Short-eared Owls and Grey Herons, along with breeding waders like Redshank.

Water Voles declined by almost 90 per cent during the 1990s. Last month it was added to the list of creatures protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, making it an offence to kill, injure or take Water Voles from the wild.

Nick Bruce-White, the warden at RSPB Rainham Marshes, said: “We hope to buy more land at Rainham Marshes, creating a new and improved home for Water Voles and many other animals, such as wading birds and dragonflies. We are immensely grateful to our young members, who are working hard across the country to raise money to buy this extra bit of land.”

The appeal is being aimed at children everywhere who are being asked to raise money through sponsored activities. Every young person who raises money to help the appeal will get a certificate and a set of stickers.

Visit www.rspb.org.uk/youth to download a Rainham Marshes sponsor form.

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A gecko’s tail is as crucial to the animal’s acrobatic ability as its “sticky” feet, scientists report.

High-speed video reveals that the creature uses its tail as a “fifth leg” to prevent it from slipping as it climbs wet surfaces.

And the footage shows that if it does fall, a flick of the tail is all it takes for the gecko to land feet-down.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, said the discovery could aid the development of improved climbing robots and unmanned gliding vehicles.

The gecko is one of nature’s best climbers - its feet are covered with millions of microscopic hairs that allow it to effortlessly cling to smooth surfaces.

But while the reptile’s hairy toes have been extensively studied, little has been known until now about the role of the gecko’s tail.

Bob Full, director of UC Berkeley’s new Center for Interdisciplinary Bio-inspiration in Education and Research, and an author on the PNAS paper, said: “Initially, we thought the gecko’s climbing ability was all in the feet, but now we know that this is clearly not true and the tail is critical.”

The researchers discovered that if a gecko was climbing up a slippery surface and lost its footing, the creature would press its tail to the wall to prevent itself from slipping backwards while it recovered its grip.

Professor Full said: “We set up an experiment where we could see what would happen if a gecko fell off of the underside of a leaf.

“They started off with their backs to the ground, but when they start to fall, they swoosh around their tails, and by doing this they are able to rotate themselves so they move into a sky-diving or ’superman’ pose.”

This enabled the gecko to land on its feet, he told the BBC News website.

While other animals, such as cats, can rotate their bodies when falling to manoeuvre into a safer landing posture, the gecko is one of the few to use its tail to do this.

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In a laboratory in the heart of the east end of London, an unmistakeable buzz fills the air.

The small room is packed with bumblebees - hundreds upon hundreds of them going about their business in small wooden hives.

Despite their scientific setting, the insects look just the same as bumblebees found in the wild, apart from one small - really small - difference.

Most are adorned with minuscule silver tags, so tiny that at first they are hard to see. But every so often, as they catch the laboratory lights, they glint and sparkle, standing out from the bees’ fuzzy bodies.

These tiny accessories are Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags - the same technology used to track stock in warehouses or supermarkets or employed for transport systems such as the Oyster Card payment scheme used on the London Underground.

They have been fitted to the bees by scientists at Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL), who want to keep track of the animals’ whereabouts so as to better understand these brainy bugs.

The tiny RFID tag can be just seen above the bee’s wings
Biologist Nigel Raine said: “Bumblebees have a relatively small brain - they have about 950,000 brain cells, humans have 100 billion - but they can achieve rather impressive feats of learning and memory given what they have got.”

Recent research has revealed that bees are able to recognise individual human faces, which, according to Dr Raine, is not that surprising given the daily challenges they face whilst foraging.

He explained: “When you think about your average park or meadow there might be dozens of species of flowers which are all different in terms of colour and shape and scent, and they are all differing in the rewards they are providing.

“Ultimately, the bees’ job is to go and find the best rewards from these flowers and they have to be flexible and learn and remember information, all the while making and breaking associations. This is all really quite complicated.”

Their navigational skills are impressive, too.

“These tiny animals leave their nests, fly back and forth between flowers, then they are somehow able to add all of these vectors together and fly back to their nest in a straight line,” said Dr Raine.

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Endangered heathland species in England could become extinct because of the poor condition of their habitat, conservationists have warned.

Natural England says wildlife, such as the stone curlew, nightjar and sand lizard, could disappear if lowland heathland is not protected.

It found all of the 104 sites surveyed were in poor condition, even those which were in conservation schemes.

Heathland is currently a priority for the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

Expansion of cities

Until about 100 years ago, heathland was a valuable resource for local communities. Trees were felled for fuel, animals grazed the land and the wildlife that favoured such open areas flourished.

Now, due to the expansion of urban areas and arable land, only 60,000 hectares (148,263 acres) remain covered by lowland heathland in England.

But even these do not meet the standards set for protected Sites of Special Scientific Interest, the latest survey for Natural England, the RSPB, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has found.

Sir Martin Doughty, chairman of Natural England, said such habitats needed to be protected to ensure the plant and animal species they support were “not lost forever”.

“There is clear evidence that many of the larger heathlands - such as the Devil’s Punch Bowl in Surrey and the East Lizard peninsula - managed for conservation and recreation are in better condition.

“To help restore other sites to these high standards we must ensure that they are properly targeted through stewardship schemes to secure appropriate management.”

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It may come as a surprise to most people that there are any seahorses at all in British coastal waters, and more surprising still that numbers appear to be increasing.

Seahorse experts met in London this month to discuss the apparent population surge in seahorses and their close relative, the pipefish.

The reasons for this increase, described as “rapid and dramatic” is not yet clear and a number of theories have been put forward including a natural population boom or warmer waters.

As with any shift in population, it is also having a knock-on effect upon other species, including sea birds.

They say although there have been changes in water temperature in the North Sea since around 1988, the large numbers of snake pipefish have only appeared in the last four or five years - putting a global warming theory in doubt.

“There is no doubt that numbers of snake pipefish have increased. In the last few years they are just everywhere,” said Professor Mike P Harris of CEH.

“Although climate change may well have had an effect, the jury is, we think, still out on this matter.”

Cindy van Damme of the Netherlands’ Wageningen IMARES - the Institute for Marine Resources and Ecosystem Studies, believes she may be nearer an answer.

She says recent shifts in ocean currents have led to a change in the composition of plankton - it has shrunk.

“Plankton is the major food item of pipefish and sea horses. The mouth opening of this group of fishes restricts the prey size they can handle. We think this mechanism explains the huge increase of snake pipefish. Hence this outbreak may very well last for only a limited number of years.”

However long it lasts, it is impacting startlingly upon pipefish predators - which include everything from mackerel, dolphins, otters and sharks to seabirds.

Although they are eaten by birds such as gannets, kittiwakes and puffins, their spiny, ‘armoured’ forms, like seahorses make them difficult for young birds to swallow and digest - some young birds even choke to death on them.

Pipefish form a distinct family with seahorses (syngnathids) and as the name would suggest, look like straight-bodied seahorses with tiny mouths.

Numbers of the snake pipefish, once rarely seen in northern British waters, now often end up in the region’s trawler nets in vast numbers, say scientists.

Once associated with deep northern waters, they have even been found recently further south by fishermen in the Thames Estuary.

A European team led by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) says that the numbers of snake pipefish in British waters has increased more than one hundredfold since 2003.

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The Wildlife Trusts run a special campaign to protect hedgehogs in the wild on Bonfire Night.

The Wildlife Trusts are asking people to look out for hiding hedgehogs before they light fires on Bonfire Night (Monday 5 November).

At this time of year hedgehogs begin to look for places to hibernate and unlit bonfires make an ideal refuge. Hedgehogs numbers are in decline due to a loss of habitat, development pressures, possible loss of food sources due to intensive farming and the possible effects of slug pellets. Hedgehogs have recently joined the red squirrel and bottlenose dolphin on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan list of species in need of conservation and greater protection.

The Wildlife Trusts advise people to help protect hedgehogs by following these guidelines when building a bonfire:

• Build the bonfire as close to the night as possible so there’s less chance of a hedgehog moving in
• Make your pile of material next to the bonfire site and re-build the stack before lighting it
• Search the bonfire for hibernating creatures using a torch and rake before starting the fire
• Move any hedgehogs found to a ready-made hedgehog box or somewhere dry and safe away from the fire
• Before bonfire night make an alternative hedgehog home by raking up grass cuttings or autumn leaves into a pile a safe distance from the fire. Hopefully sleepy ‘hogs will choose to snooze there instead of the bonfire

Morag Shuaib, The Wildlife Trusts’ Wildlife Gardening officer, said:

“To a hedgehog looking for a place to sleep, an unlit bonfire is a ready made nest. We are asking people to give hedgehogs a helping hand by following our instructions and checking any bonfires before lighting them. It only takes a minute to do but can save hundreds of hedgehogs from an unnecessary death.

“Hedgehogs are great friends to gardeners and a natural pest-killer. However, numbers are in decline and we need to do all we can to help them out. Once bonfire night is over why not think about creating a hedgehog haven in your garden? Hedgehogs need garden habitats that mimic woodland edge and hedgerow and will feed on slugs, snails, beetles, worms, and caterpillars. You can provide leafy, twiggy places for hibernation – small piles of logs or leaves are ideal. Avoid slug pellets and don’t keep your garden too tidy!”

The Wildlife Trusts is a wildlife conservation organisation only. Any queries relating to animal welfare such as injured hedgehogs should be directed to your local RSPCA office. Telephone 0870 33 35 999 or visit: www.rspca.org.uk

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society can also provide further advice on caring for hedgehogs and encouraging them in the wild and in gardens: Tel: 01584 890801

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The Forestry Commission is running a special event for dog owners in Devon in a bid to encourage them to use its land more sensitively.

The Commission is working together with the Kennel Club after it was estimated that around 30% of visitors to the countryside bring a dog with them.

The event, to be held at Holden Forest, near Exeter, will include dog agility, obedience and fly ball demonstrations.

There will also be a pooch parade featuring an award for “waggiest tail”.

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