End of species extinctions is in sight as we bring animals back

Unleash the long-gone beasts. We won’t see a woolly mammoth in 2017, but a host of schemes to bring animals back from the brink of extinction will kick in next year.

Genetic and stem cell technologies are on the cusp of letting us clone even infertile endangered animals when intact DNA is available. And some extinct species could be brought back by tweaking the genome of a living close relative. It should also be possible to engineer lost traits into a population.

One initiative involves the northern white rhino, which is now down to three infertile individuals living in Kenya. This year, a plan was announced to use stem cell technologies, frozen specimens and assisted reproduction to make new rhinos.

Similarly, genetic rescue could help the black-footed ferret (pictured), one of the most endangered mammals in North America, to make a comeback. The first in vitro experiments are set to begin in 2017, and will tackle inbreeding and disease resistance, because a type of plague and an untreatable virus are in danger of wiping out the animals.

Another project is using gene editing to make a chimeric rooster of prairie chickens to help bring back their extinct relative the heath hen. If it works, they hope to revive the passenger pigeon next.

Woolly mammoths are a little further over the horizon. A project is under way to endow Asian elephant eggs with mammoth DNA. After the legwork is done over the next year, the first cloning attempts are scheduled for 2018.

Jurassic Park is still beyond us, but Pleistocene Park, full of ice age animals, might soon be a realistic dream.

‘Tis the season of dancing animals - but why do humans love them?

Forget Strictly, this is the season of dancing animals. All things furry and animated - from panto horses to balletic hippos and pirouetting mice - come out at Christmas time. Children are captivated – and we are, too. This is down to more than cultural tradition. It’s also biological. We identify with animal movement because the wiring that connects our limbs to our spines is so similar. Even though we walk on two legs and animals on four, our basic movements are controlled by very similar circuits.

We use our body control systems to help us see and understand theirs. For example, the areas of our brain that respond to seeing a human biting something are also sensitive to watching a monkey or a dog biting. And this resonance is part of the way we appreciate the emotions of other species. It helps us to anthropomorphise, whether we want to or not. We automatically identify and empathise with a frightened rabbit whether it’s on a country walk or a theatre stage. So it’s no wonder we are fascinated by animal motion, and so drawn to festive performances like Peter and the Wolf. Even if we pretend it’s the kids that make us go.

Oldest fossil of bird's voicebox gives new hint at soundscape of the Cretaceous

The oldest evidence of a bird’s voice box has been found among the fossilised remains of a duck-like creature that lived more than 66 million years ago.

The discovery suggests that the animal was able to make a variety of sounds similar to those of current day ducks, including quacks.

The human voice box, or larynx, sits near the top of the windpipe. However, the vocal organ of birds - known as a syrinx - lies deep within the chest near the heart, where the windpipe branches to the lungs. Composed of cartilage rings and soft tissue, it allows birds to make a wide variety of calls, from songs to honks.

But little is known about the origin of the organ.

Now scientists says they have found the remains of a syrinx within the fossilised, partial skeleton of a bird, known as Vegavis iaai, that lived in the age of the dinosaurs.

“What was really striking is that it is basically all of the informative parts of the voice box; it is the business part of the syrinx,” said Julia Clarke, first author of the new research from the University of Texas at Austin.

The findings, she added, offer important clues as to the evolution of the vocal organ of birds, and potentially of the communication strategies and social interactions the syrinx underpins.

Stephen Brusatte, a palaeontologist at Edinburgh University, described the new find as a stunning discovery.

“The bones themselves are a really important fossil – they are one of the oldest good skeletons of a modern-style bird, and confirm that some of the bird groups that around today, like ducks and geese, were also living with the dinosaurs,” he said.

But the discovery also offers a new perspective on soundscape that would have existed more than 66 million years ago.

“It tells us that these early birds living alongside the dinosaurs may have sounded like some of the birds around today,” Brusatte said. “If [we] were standing back in the late Cretaceous, during that calm before the asteroid hit and wiped out the dinosaurs, the air may have been filled with the songs, chirps, and honks of birds!”

Discovered within the rocks of Vega Island in the Antarctic in 1992, Vegavis iaai was classified by a team including Clarke as an early relative of ducks and geese in 2005, making it the only species of modern bird known to have lived at the time of the dinosaurs.

Writing in the journal Nature, Clarke and colleagues from the US, China and Argentina describe how they discovered the syrinx among its fossilised remains using high resolution x-ray techniques. From the resulting three-dimensional digital model, the team were able to analyse the organ and determine that it had a diameter of around 1cm.

The team then compared the syrinx to vocal organs from 12 bird species alive today, as well as the larynx of an American alligator. The team also analysed for the first time a syrinx previously found in the fossilised remains of a species of long-legged waterfowl that lived around 50 million years ago.

The results enabled the researchers to explore the evolution of the syrinx and make predictions about what early forms of the organ would have looked like.

That a syrinx has not been found in any other dinosaur, avian or non-avian, from before the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous suggests that the development of the the organ was a relatively late step in the evolution of birds, the authors say.

“The team of us have spent the last two years trying to find even earlier syrinxes and we haven’t [found one],” said Clarke. “We suggest [the syrinx] might be a late- arriving phenomenon, after the origin of flight and respiratory innovation like continuous breathing.”

Non-avian dinosaurs, such as the Tyrannosaurus rex, she added, would probably have had a larynx and most likely made loud booming sounds.

Dog rescue fighting to survive will be turned into pig and turkey farm if last-ditch attempt to save it fails

THE owner of a rescue centre embroiled in a legal battle over its future has told council bosses they will be responsible for finding homes for 80 dogs if it closes.

AA Dog Rescue, in Burnham Road, Latchingdon, has lost its appeal against two enforcement notices served by Maldon District Council.

The centre, which has rescued over 1,500 dogs in the three years since it opened, was originally told it must cease operating as a rescue centre by October 8.

The notices said the dog rescue had changed the use of the land, without planning permission, from an equestrian site to equestrian, retail and dog rescue site.

But owners Charley Nathan and Karen James argued that there was no material difference between use for horses and use for dogs, and also denied the retail element of the notice.

However, planning inspector Diane Lewis upheld the council’s ruling.

AA Dog Rescue appealed to the High Court but this was also unsuccessful.

Now Ms Nathan has vowed to fight on and is submitting one final planning application to Maldon District Council.

The new plans, submitted last Tuesday, include new walls and ceilings to combat noise, double doors and also a new compound to house dogs in quarantine.

Ms Nathan, who is waiting for the latest application to be validated, said she felt let down.

She said: “I trusted the council before all of this.

"I told them I don’t any more. If they decide to enforce [the notice] they have got to find homes for 80 dogs.”

Ms Nathan said the current planning application was the last shot at getting permission and if it failed the dog rescue would be moved.

She added; “I told the council within two weeks [of it being refused] everything will be moved.

"The council will have no need to spend any public money to enforce it.

"If the plans don’t go through it will be turned into a pig, turkey and peacock farm.”

Ms Nathan said the centre would be rehoming the free roaming Mayland peacocks.

A COUNCIL says it is “disappointed” a dog rescue centre has continued to import dogs despite facing a trail over allegations barking dogs were causing a nuisance.

AA Dog Rescue owners Charley Nathan and Karen James appeared before Colchester Magistrates’ Court on October 11 accused of failing to comply with a noise abatement notice issued by the council in November.

The charges claim the centre, on Burnham Road, failed to comply with the notice on six occasions between February 13 and July 27. A trial will take place in January.

A spokesman for Maldon District Council said: “The case between Maldon District Council v Charley Nathan and Karen James of AA Dog Rescue, Oldfield Lodge, Burnham Road, Latchingdon was heard at Colchester Magistrates Court on 11 October 2016. The case has been put forward for trial in January 2017.

“It is disappointing that despite the ongoing matters, AA Dog Rescue has continued to import dogs from overseas having received a shipment of 18 dogs on Saturday, October 8.”

Why SeaWorld's Stock Could Stop Sinking

If the tide doesn’t turn, there’s always real estate.

Earlier this year, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment took the bold step of blowing up its business model. It announced on March 17 that it would soon end its iconic Shamu shows and the breeding of killer whales altogether. At the time, investors and the general public cheered the move; the stock  SEAS 0.00%  shot up 9.5% that day in mid-March.

SeaWorld management was heartened by the reaction. It appeared they had at last removed what CEO Joel Manby called their “blocking” issue: A virulent controversy over their treatment of orcas that had generated plenty of negative publicity and weighed on the company’s performance in recent years. (For the full story of SeaWorld’s battle to recover from the controversy, read Fortune’s feature, “The Love-Peddling Showman Saving SeaWorld From Itself.”)Finally, the path seemed clear for the turnaround strategy Manby had publicly mapped out at the company’s Investor Day in November 2015. His plan is to infuse the company’s parks with mom- and millennial-pleasing “purpose”; to make them more about animal conservation than animal entertainment; and to make them more educational (with more naturalistic animal displays and lessons about creatures in the wild), but also more fun (with more rides). Manby also has a broader vision for the company, which includes launching international locations, resorts, and a global animal rescue organization.

Manby has said it will take time to get the beleaguered theme park company back on track, but it’s unlikely he realized how briefly the post-announcement bump would last. The news since SeaWorld’s splashy March rebranding has been surprisingly bad. The stock has plunged 30%, and attendance numbers and revenues for the first half of the year were down from already-disappointing 2015 levels, largely due to weak attendance at its Orlando park. Given the revenue decline, analysts have flagged the risk of the company tripping its debt covenant, which would require SeaWorld to borrow more money in order to afford its fat dividend.

Many investors think Manby’s strategy is solid and see promise in an environmentally oriented theme park—one investor even speculated to me that such destinations will be more appealing to Millennial parents than princess-themed amusement parks in the not too distant future. However, there’s a real question whether he can work quickly enough to turn things around and compete in an industry that adds wildly popular attractions like Universal Orlando’s Harry Potter attraction or Disney World’s’s recently opened Frozen Ever After ride each year.

Ben Chaiken, a Credit Suisse analyst who has been bearish on SeaWorld’s prospects, argues the company will likely have to cut its dividend to keep up. In an August research note, he suggested the $1.4 billion company’s annual payout to investors would be better spent on new attractions; that sum, approximately $80 million, could fund two or three new roller coasters.

But, even if Manby struggles with his turnaround plan, analysts and investors point out there’s lots of value there. The company owns 11 parks, only three of which are branded SeaWorld (they account for roughly 60% of attendance, says FBR Capital analyst Barton Crockett). The others include Busch Gardens, Sesame Place, and an assortment of water parks. Those brands remain attractive, as does all the prime real estate that SeaWorld’s parks are situated on. Crockett, who is bullish on SeaWorld, notes that even if things get much worse, the company has a portfolio of properties that, in its IPO filings, was valued at $5 billion; that’s more than two times the current value of its market cap and debt.