Tag: Mammalia

How bears bulk up ahead of the summer: A study into the Asiatic black bear’s spring diet

Much like gym enthusiasts, every year Asiatic black bears seem to be on the lookout for protein-rich food ahead of the summer, so that they can bulk up on lean muscle mass in place of the fat tissue formed last year prior to hibernation. This was concluded in a study by Dr. Shino Furusaka, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and his team, based on direct observations on bears living across an area of about 60 km2 in Japan. The study is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

In order to determine the bears’ food preferences and habits, the scientists followed a large number of animals in the Ashio area of the Ashio-Nikko Mountains in Japan from April to July in both 2013 and 2014. To avoid unnecessary intrusion, they stayed at a distance of at least 200 metres using video cameras with telescopic lenses to document the sightings. Having documented the plant species the bears consumed, the researchers studied their nutritional content and made conclusions about the nutrients needed for the species after hibernation.

While heavily dependent on food availability, generally the bears were noted to prefer food which is high in protein, but poor in fibre — likely because their stomachs and intestines were unable to efficiently digest the latter. Furthermore, the protein-rich diet ensures that the muscle mass is rebuilt to replace the lost winter fat.

Interestingly, the bears were observed to change their food preferences as spring progressed and that seemed to be linked to the shifts in the nutritional value of the available food.

Starting with their observations at the beginning of April, the scientists did not record any feeding behaviour until the end of the month. As leaf flush was yet to occur, the animals were active and feeding on overwintered grass. However, in early May, the bears began consuming newly emerged leaves, grass and, later in the month, they added flowers to their menu.

A shift in behaviour occurred in the following months. In June and July, the bears were seen to feed mainly on ants, with a small portion of their food intake consisting of grasses, sika deer carcasses and bees. Curiously, when the scientists looked into the nutritional content of the same plants which the animals sought only a few weeks ago, they found out that now they were significantly poorer in protein and richer in fibre.

Another finding showed that the calories in the different items were not related to the choice of food which likely proves that the key factor is none other than the amount of protein, provided that the fibre value is low enough for good digestibility.

Understanding the food preferences and habits of animals, as well as the reasons behind them, is essential for the development and revision of habitat management plans. However, previous knowledge of the feeding behaviour of Asiatic black bears has been based solely on faecal analyses which has not provided sufficient details on which nutritional factors influence the use of particular foods.

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Original source:

Furusaka S, Kozakai C, Nemoto Y, Umemura Y, Naganuma T, Yamazaki K, Koike S (2017) The selection by the Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) of spring plant food items according to their nutritional values. ZooKeys 672: 121-133. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.672.10078

First find of its kind in more than 3 decades: The adorable Olinguito

Observed in the wild, tucked away in museum collections, and even exhibited in zoos around the world; there is one mysterious creature that has been a victim of mistaken identity for more than 100 years.

Observed in the wild, tucked away in museum collections, and even exhibited in zoos around the world; there is one mysterious creature that has been a victim of mistaken identity for more than 100 years.

A team of Smithsonian scientists, however, uncovered overlooked museum specimens of this remarkable animal, which took them on a journey from museum cabinets in Chicago to cloud forests in South America to genetics labs in Washington, D.C. The result: the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina); the first carnivore species to be discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years.

The team’s discovery is published in the Aug. 15 issue of the open-access scholarly journal ZooKeys.

The olinguito (oh-lin-GHEE-toe) looks like a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear. It is actually the latest scientifically documented member of the family Procyonidae, which it shares with raccoons, coatis, kinkajous and olingos. The 2-pound olinguito, with its large eyes and woolly orange-brown fur, is native to the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador, as its scientific name, “neblina” (Spanish for “fog”), hints.

In addition to being the latest described member of its family, another distinction the olinguito holds is that it is the newest species in the order Carnivora; an incredibly rare discovery in the 21st century.

“The discovery of the olinguito shows us that the world is not yet completely explored, its most basic secrets not yet revealed. If new carnivores can still be found, what other surprises await us? So many of the world’s species are not yet known to science. Documenting them is the first step toward understanding the full richness and diversity of life on Earth,”

said Kristofer Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and leader of the team reporting the new discovery.

Discovering a new species of carnivore, however, does not happen overnight. This one took a decade, and was not the project’s original goal; completing the first comprehensive study of olingos, several species of tree-living carnivores in the genus Bassaricyon, was.

Helgen’s team wanted to understand how many olingo species should be recognized and how these species are distributed; issues that had long been unclear to scientists. Unexpectedly, the team’s close examination of more than 95 percent of the world’s olingo specimens in museums, along with DNA testing and the review of historic field data, revealed existence of the olinguito, a previously undescribed species.

The first clue came to Helgen from the olinguito’s teeth and skull, which were smaller and differently shaped than those of olingos. Examining museum skins revealed that this new species was also smaller overall with a longer and denser coat; field records showed that it occurred in a unique area of the northern Andes Mountains at 5,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level; elevations much higher than the known species of olingo. This information, however, was coming from overlooked olinguito specimens collected in the early 20th century. The question Helgen and his team wanted to answer next was: Does the olinguito still exist in the wild?

To answer that question, Helgen called on Roland Kays, director of the Biodiversity and Earth Observation Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, to help organize a field expedition.

The team had a lucky break that started with a camcorder video. With confirmation of the olinguito’s existence via a few seconds of grainy video shot by their colleague Miguel Pinto, a zoologist in Ecuador, Helgen and Kays set off on a three-week expedition to find the animal themselves. Working with Pinto, they found olinguitos in a forest on the western slopes of the Andes, and spent their days documenting what they could about the animal&;its characteristics and its forest home. Because the olinguito was new to science, it was imperative for the scientists to record every aspect of the animal. They learned that the olinguito is mostly active at night, is mainly a fruit eater, rarely comes out of the trees and has one baby at a time.

In addition to body features and behavior, the team made special note of the olinguito’s cloud forest Andean habitat, which is under heavy pressure of human development. The team estimated that 42 percent of historic olinguito habitat has already been converted to agriculture or urban areas.

“The cloud forests of the Andes are a world unto themselves, filled with many species found nowhere else, many of them threatened or endangered. We hope that the olinguito can serve as an ambassador species for the cloud forests of Ecuador and Colombia, to bring the world’s attention to these critical habitats,”

Helgen said.

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Original Source:

Helgen KM, Pinto CM, Kays R, Helgen LE, Tsuchiya MTN, Quinn A, Wilson DE, Maldonado JE (2013) Taxonomic revision of the olingos (Bassaricyon), with description of a new species, the Olinguito. ZooKeys 324: 1. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.324.5827

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