Marine Security Belt naval drills are held annually by Iran, China and Russia near the Gulf of Oman. The waters are strategically important for global trade and oil exports in particular.
According to National Geographic, Drills are shy creatures that live in one small and remote area of Africa. Their faces aren’t as colourful as another species in their genus the Mandrill. Yet Drills still possess a dramatic appearance with pitch-black faces surrounded with a white fringe. Males have fatty cheek pads and a splash of red under their lower lips, this gives them the uncanny appearance of having broken into a makeup cabinet. They face serious threats from palm oil, cocoa and tobacco deforest
According to National Geographic, Drills are shy creatures that live in one small and remote area of Africa. Their faces aren’t as colourful as another species in their genus the Mandrill. Yet Drills still possess a dramatic appearance with pitch-black faces surrounded with a white fringe. Males have fatty cheek pads and a splash of red under their lower lips, this gives them the uncanny appearance of having broken into a makeup cabinet. They face serious threats from palm oil, cocoa and tobacco deforestation, mining and the hunting for the bushmeat trade. Help them every time you shop and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Drills live in the coastal lowland forests and semi-montane forests. In the 1930s, Sanderson (1937) collected Drills in mixed grassland-gallery forest of Cameroon’s Bamenda Highlands but these forests are now largely eliminated. Within the core habitat of the Drill, vast tracts of rainforest have been converted to palm oil, rubber, tea and banana plantations in the last 80 years from Mount Cameroon east to Douala.
The species is threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation and hunting. Habitat loss results from forest clearance on a small but extensive scale for farms, particularly in Nigeria, for large-scale plantations, particularly in Cameroon where multiple oil palm plantation projects are underway or proposed (Morgan et al. 2013), and from commercial logging in Cameroon where several important forests peripheral to Korup are now designated as concessions (C. Astaras pers. comm. 2016).
Drills are threatened by deforestation, particularly in Cameroon where multiple oil palm plantation projects are already underway or proposed (Morgan et al. 2013).
Gadsby, E.L., Cronin, D.T., Astaras, C. & Imong, I. 2020. Mandrillus leucophaeus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T12753A17952490. dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.202…. Downloaded on 12 March 2021.
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Many animals have a colourful, yet largely hidden, trait. Marine creatures like fish and corals can glow blue, green or red under certain types of light. So can land animals like penguins and parrots. But until now, experts knew of only one salamander and a few frogs that could glow. No longer. Among amphibians, this ability to glow now appears fairly common — even if you can’t see it. Research has found that most amphibians glow as well – even if it’s not visible to human eyes. Protect amphibians and reptiles every time you shop and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
The glow is produced through a process is known as fluorescence. A body absorbs shorter (higher energy) wavelengths of light. Almost immediately, it then re-emits that light, but now at longer (lower energy) wavelengths. People can’t see this glow, however, because our eyes aren’t sensitive enough to see the small amount of light given off in natural light.
Blue poison dart frogs by Aleksei Stemmer for Getty Images Jennifer Lamb and Matthew Davis are biologists at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. They shone blue or ultraviolet light on 32 species of amphibians. Most were salamanders and frogs. Some were adults. Others were younger. One animal was a wormlike amphibian known as a caecilian (Seh-SEEL-yun).
The researchers found some of the creatures in their natural habitats. Others came from places like the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Ill. (There, the pair were allowed to “come into the exhibit after dark and basically run through their exhibit,” Davis notes.) Blue poison dart frog by Zoological Consult for Getty Images Many animals have a colourful, yet largely hidden, trait. Marine creatures like fish and corals can glow blue, green or red under certain types of light. So can land animals like penguins and parrots. But until now, experts knew of only one salamander and a few frogs that could glow. No longer. Among amphibians, this ability to glow now appears fairly common — even if you can’t see it.
Research shows that biofluorescence is widespread and common amongst amphibians
To the researchers’ surprise, all the animals they tested glowed in brilliant colors. Some were green. The glow from others was more yellow. The colors glowed most strongly under blue light. Until now, scientists had seen such fluorescence only in marine turtles. The new finding suggests that this biofluorescence is widespread among amphibians.
The researchers reported their findings February 27 in Scientific Reports. Red Eyed Tree Frog by Getty Images Which parts of an animal glow differ with the species, Lamb and Davis found. Yellow spots on the eastern tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) glow green under blue light. But in the marbled salamander (A. opacum), the bones and parts of its underside light up.
The researchers didn’t test what these amphibians use to glow. But they suspect the animals rely on fluorescent proteins or the pigments in some cells. If there are multiple ways they fluoresce, that would hint that the ability to glow evolved independently in different species. If not, the ancient ancestor of modern amphibians may have passed one trait on to species that are alive today.
Fluorescence may help salamanders and frogs find one another in low light. In fact, their eyes contain cells that are especially sensitive to green or blue light.
One day, scientists might also harness the amphibians’ ability to glow. They could use special lights to search for the animals to survey their presence in the wild. That might help them see creatures that blend into their surroundings or hide in piles of leaves.
Blue poison dart frog by Zoological Consult for Getty Images
Here are some other ways you can help by using your wallet as a weapon and joining the #Boycott4Wildlife
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
John Measey flew to Venezuela in 1997 in search of peculiar amphibians that looked like snakes or worms and lived underground. Measey’s team trekked through
Blue poison dart frogs by Aleksei Stemmer for Getty Images
Blue poison dart frog by Zoological Consult for Getty Images
Red Eyed Tree Frog by Getty Images
