scholarly journals Five years of conserving the ‘world's rarest snake’, the Antiguan racer Alsophis antiguae

Oryx ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny C. Daltry ◽  
Quentin Bloxam ◽  
Gillian Cooper ◽  
Mark L. Day ◽  
John Hartley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Restoration ◽  
Distribution Range ◽  
Breeding Habitat ◽  
Eradication Programme ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Invasive Predators ◽  
Historical Distribution ◽  
Conservation Breeding

AbstractAbstract The Critically Endangered Antiguan racer Alsophis antiguae is confined to Great Bird Island, a 9.9 ha (24.5-acre) islet off the north-east coast of Antigua in the Lesser Antilles. This island represents well under 0.1 per cent of the species's historical distribution range. During the past 5 years, the total number of racers aged 1 year or more has fluctuated between 51 and 114, and currently stands at approximately 80. Since 1995, the Antiguan Racer Conservation Project (ARCP) has en-deavoured to save this harmless snake from extinction by using a combination of education, conservation breeding, habitat restoration, local capacity building and applied research. The Antiguan racer's ecology and population dynamics have become well understood after 5 years of intensive study, and the species has evidently benefited from the project's rat eradication programme. The snakes are still seriously threatened by other intrinsic and extrinsic factors, however, including inbreeding depression, frequent hurricanes, invasive predators and deliberate killing by tourists, as well as the problem that Great Bird Island is too small to support more than about 100 individuals. This paper describes the activities and impact of this project to date, and outlines a series of conservation activities to safeguard the long-term future of the species, which include reintroduction of the Antiguan racer to restored islands within its former distribution range.

scholarly journals Successful Ageing in Singapore

Geriatrics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rogerson ◽  
Simon Stacey
Keyword(s):  
Screening Program ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Successful Ageing ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Proactive Measures ◽  
Multiple Domains

Singapore has experienced rapid development in the past 50 years. This has presented unique challenges with regard to land space and a rapidly ageing population. The role of extrinsic factors in successful ageing is well documented, and places a degree of responsibility on the state and healthcare systems. Singapore has taken many proactive measures to meet this responsibility by implementing policy changes across multiple domains including housing, transport, education and research. One hospital in the north east of Singapore has undertaken a frailty screening program that aims to identify, prevent and reverse frailty at an early stage. This paper provides a review of these national and regional measures.

scholarly journals Spatio-Temporal Variability of Harbor Porpoise Life History Parameters in the North-East Atlantic

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinéad Murphy ◽  
Marie A. C. Petitguyot ◽  
Paul D. Jepson ◽  
Rob Deaville ◽  
Christina Lockyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Average Length ◽  
Mortality Data ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Harbor Porpoise ◽  
East Atlantic ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
Early Maturation ◽  
North East ◽  
The North

Harbor porpoises exhibit early maturation, relatively short gestation/lactation periods and a faster rate of reproduction as compared to other cetacean species. Intrinsic and extrinsic factors can influence both population vital rates and population structure, which ultimately cause changes in dynamics within and between populations. Here, we undertook a retrospective analysis of mortality data collected over a 24-year period for assessing life history traits of the North-east Atlantic harbor porpoise population. We use time-period specific models for key life history relationships that considered cause of death of individuals (as a proxy for health status), sex and management unit (MU). Sexual variation in asymptotic length, asymptotic age, average length at 50% maturity (L50) and average age at 50% maturity (A50) were observed, with females attaining a larger asymptotic length, larger L50, and delaying attainment of both sexual and physical maturity, compared to males. While females are constrained in their minimum body size due to giving birth to proportionally larger offspring, males exhibited more plasticity in size at sexual maturity, enabling re-allocation of available energy resources toward reproduction. Data were then used to compare biological parameters among two porpoise MUs in United Kingdom waters, both of which in the current study exhibited reduced reproductive rates compared to other geographic regions. In both MUs, females significantly increased their A50 and males significantly declined in their L50. An increase in the age at asymptotic length was also observed in both sexes, along with a significant decline in the Gompertz growth rate parameter that was more apparent in the female data. While availability of suitable prey resources may be a limiting factor, a combination of other factors cannot be ruled out. Porpoises in the Celtic and Irish Seas MU were significantly larger in their maximum length, asymptotic length and L50 compared to porpoises in the North Sea MU throughout the study period, suggesting limited gene flow between these two MUs. These results justify the maintenance of these harbor porpoise MUs or assessment units, as two separate units, within the range of the North-east Atlantic population, and for indicator assessments under the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

scholarly journals Better Understanding the Potential Importance of Florida Roadside Breeding Habitat for the Monarch

Insects ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaret Daniels ◽  
Chase Kimmel ◽  
Simon McClung ◽  
Samm Epstein ◽  
Jonathan Bremer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Restoration ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Danaus Plexippus ◽  
Monarch Butterfly ◽  
Breeding Habitat ◽  
Deep South ◽  
Early Season ◽  
The North ◽  
Asclepias Humistrata ◽  
Roadside Verges

The North American monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population has declined significantly over the past two decades. Among the many other factors, loss of breeding habitat has been implicated as a potential leading driver. In response, wildlife agencies and conservation practitioners have made a strong push to restore and conserve milkweeds on both wild and managed landscapes including agricultural lands as well as transportation and utility rights-of-way. Roadsides in particular have been emphasized as a targeted landscape for monarch habitat restoration. While much attention has been focused on habitat in California, along the I-35 corridor from Texas to Minnesota, and more broadly across the agricultural Midwest, research on the occurrence of roadside breeding habitat and the development of best vegetative management practices conducted in the Deep South has been limited. We sampled roadside verges in north-central Florida for the presence of two early season milkweed species, that are particularly important for early season monarch recolonization, Asclepias tuberosa and Asclepias humistrata. Our findings suggest that roadsides harbor extensive populations of the target milkweeds with the vast majority of plants occurring on the back slope of the verge. Alterations to current roadside mowing frequency and scope are needed to effectively conserve these populations and ensure that they are available for use by the monarch.

New Zealand forest-dwelling skinks of the Oligosoma oliveri (McCann) species-complex (Reptilia: Scincidae): reinstatement of O. pachysomaticum (Robb) and an assessment of historical distribution ranges

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4688 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-398
Author(s):  
TONY R. JEWELL
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Species Complex ◽  
East Coast ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Distribution Ranges ◽  
Historical Distribution ◽  
Distribution Limits ◽  
Population Interaction ◽  
Insular Populations

The forest-dwelling skinks of the Oligosoma oliveri (‘marbled skink’) species-complex, from the North Island of New Zealand, have proven difficult taxonomically because all mainland populations are extinct, obscuring patterns of distribution and population interaction. Twenty-four small insular populations have survived off the north-east coast of the North Island, which are at present classified into three species. In this paper I re-assess the available phenotypic, ecological, biogeographic and phylogenetic evidence associated with these skinks. As a result, O. pachysomaticum (Robb) is raised from synonymy with O. oliveri (McCann) and more precise historical distribution limits are inferred for each member of the group. Implications for the conservation management of each species are also discussed. 

Ras al Khaimah: further archaeological discoveries

Antiquity ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 50 (200) ◽  
pp. 216-222
Author(s):  
Beatrice De Cardi
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
The State ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

Ras a1 Khaimah is the most northerly of the seven states comprising the United Arab Emirates and its Ruler, H. H. Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammad al-Qasimi, is keenly interested in the history of the state and its people. Survey carried out there jointly with Dr D. B. Doe in 1968 had focused attention on the site of JuIfar which lies just north of the present town of Ras a1 Khaimah (de Cardi, 1971, 230-2). Julfar was in existence in Abbasid times and its importance as an entrep6t during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-the Portuguese Period-is reflected by the quantity and variety of imported wares to be found among the ruins of the city. Most of the sites discovered during the survey dated from that period but a group of cairns near Ghalilah and some long gabled graves in the Shimal area to the north-east of the date-groves behind Ras a1 Khaimah (map, FIG. I) clearly represented a more distant past.

Lichens in the North-East regions of Cyprus

1999 ◽  
Vol 110 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 455-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Güvenç ◽  
Ş Öztürk
Keyword(s):  
North East ◽  
The North

TBE in Italy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Tagliapietra ◽  
Flavia Riccardo ◽  
Giovanni Rezza
Keyword(s):  
Case Series ◽  
East Part ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Tick Borne Encephalitis ◽  
Low Incidence

Italy is considered a low incidence country for tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Europe. Areas at higher risk for TBE in Italy are geographically clustered in the forested and mountainous regions and provinces in the north east part of the country, as suggested by TBE case series published over the last decade.

TBE in Italy

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Surveillance System ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
National Level ◽  
Case Series ◽  
Incidence Rates ◽  
Mountainous Regions ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Tick Borne Encephalitis ◽  
Low Incidence

Italy is considered a low-incidence country for tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Europe.1 Areas at higher risk for TBE in Italy are geographically clustered in the forested and mountainous regions and provinces in the north east part of the country, as suggested by TBE case series published over the last decade.2-5 A national enhanced surveillance system for TBE has been established since 2017.6 Before this, information on the occurrence of TBE cases at the national level in Italy was lacking. Both incidence rates and the geographical distribution of the disease were mostly inferred from endemic areas where surveillance was already in place, ad hoc studies and international literature.1

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