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Animal Carcasses (animal + carcass)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	80%

Selected Abstracts

The contribution of limb bone fracture patterns to reconstructing early hominid behaviour at Swartkrans cave (South Africa): archaeological application of a new analytical method

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 4 2005
T. R. Pickering
Abstract Recently, Alcántara García et al. (in press) presented a new method and criteria for distinguishing between fractures imparted by hominid hammerstone percussion and carnivores chewing on ,green' limb bones of ungulates. The method uses a combination of fracture plane and fracture angle data that are useful for elucidating the relative role of hominids in the accumulation of prehistoric archaeofaunas, especially when employed in concert with other classes of taphonomic data. We briefly summarise the method and apply it to the ungulate limb bone subassemblage from Swartkrans Member 3, a c. 1.0 million year old site from South Africa that preserves Early Stone Age lithic artefacts, hominid fossils, and an abundant mammalian fauna with cutmarked, hammerstone-percussed and burned bone specimens. Results of the fracture pattern analysis corroborate indications from other lines of taphonomic data that there was minimal carnivore,hominid interdependence in the formation of the fauna, and that carnivores were probably responsible for the majority of the bone collection in Member 3. However, we also document a significant hominid influence on assemblage formation, a finding that expands and refines our understanding of large animal carcass foraging by hominids in southern Africa during the early Pleistocene. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Sanitary versus environmental policies: fitting together two pieces of the puzzle of European vulture conservation

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2010
Antoni Margalida
Summary 1.,Between 1996 and 2000 the appearance of bovine spongiform encephalopathy swiftly became one of the most serious public health and political crises concerning food safety ever experienced in the European Union (EU). Subsequent sanitary regulations led to profound changes in the management of livestock carcasses (i.e. the industrial destruction of around 80% of all animal carcasses), thereby threatening the last remaining healthy scavenger populations of the Old World and thus contradicting the long-term environmental policies of the EU. 2.,Several warning signs such as a decrease in breeding success, an apparent increase in mortality in young age classes of vultures and an increase in the number of cases of vultures attacking and killing cattle, as well as a halt in population growth, suggest that the decrease in the availability of food resources has had harmful effects on vulture populations. 3.,Between 2002 and 2005, a number of dispositions to the EU regulations (2003/322/CE 2005/830/CE) enabled conservation managers to adopt rapid solutions (i.e. the creation of vulture restaurants) aimed at satisfying the food requirements of vultures. However, these conservation measures may seriously modify habitat quality and have indirect detrimental effects on avian scavenger populations and communities. 4.,Synthesis and applications.,Conservation managers and policy-makers need to balance the demands of public health protection and the long-term conservation of biodiversity. The regulations concerning carrion provisioning need to be more flexible and there needs to be greater compatibility between sanitary and environmental policies. We advocate policies that authorize the abandonment of livestock carcasses and favours populations of wild herbivores to help to maintain populations of avian scavengers. Conservation strategies should be incorporated into new European Commission regulations, which should be effective in 2011. [source]

Competition between domestic dogs and Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) in the Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia

AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
A. Atickem
Abstract The potential effects of the domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) on the Endangered Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) through exploitative and interference competition were studied in the Web Valley of Bale Mountains national park between November 2001 and February 2003. All dogs were owned in the study area and no feral dogs were reported or observed during the research period. The diet of domestic dogs was dominated by barley husks and human faeces which contributed 45% and 20.7% of the total 382 meals observed during focal watch observations. Analysis of dog faeces provided similar results with barley husks, human faeces and animal carcasses occurring in 86.8%, 21.4% and 19.4% of the 1200 faecal samples analysed. Both focal watch and faecal analyses revealed that rodents contributed only a very small proportion of the diet of dogs accounting for only 4.2% of the focal watch and 2.8% of the faecal analysis of roaming dogs. As Ethiopian wolves fed almost exclusively on rodent year round, no significant exploitative competition between dogs and wolves were assessed. Only small proportion of the domestic dogs roamed in the Ethiopian wolf range and interference competition did not appear to be a serious threat for the Ethiopian wolf. Résumé De novembre 2001 à février 2003, on a étudié les effets potentiels des chiens domestiques (Canis familiaris) sur le loup d'Ethiopie (Canis simensis) qui est en danger, en raison d'une compétition par exploitation alimentaire ou par interférences, dans la Vallée de Web, dans le Parc National des montagnes de Bale. Tous les chiens de l'étude avaient un propriétaire, et nous n'avons ni rapporté ni observé de chien féral pendant cette période. Le régime alimentaire des chiens comprenait principalement de la balle d'orge et des excréments humains qui composaient respectivement 45% et 20,7% du total des 382 repas observés pendant des observations focalisées. L'analyse des excréments de chiens donne des résultats semblables : la balle d'orge, les excréments humains et les carcasses d'animaux sont présents dans 86,8%, 21,4% et 19,4% des 1 200 échantillons fécaux analysés. Et les observations focalisées et les analyses des crottes ont révélé que les rongeurs ne composent qu'une toute petite proportion du régime des chiens, avec 4,2% des observations et 2,8% des analyses fécales des chiens errant en liberté. Comme les loups d'Ethiopie se nourrissent toute l'année presque exclusivement de rongeurs, nous avons estimé qu'il n'y avait aucune compétition par exploitation significative entre les chiens et les loups. Seule une petite proportion de chiens circulent dans l'aire de distribution du loup d'Ethiopie, et la compétition par interférence a semblé ne pas constituer une menace sérieuse pour le loup d'Ethiopie. [source]

Development and demonstration of RNA isolation and RT,PCR procedures to detect Escherichia coli O157:H7 gene expression on beef carcass surfaces

LETTERS IN APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2000
E.D. Berry
Preventing the development of pathogen resistance to processing and preservation techniques will require an understanding of the genetic mechanisms that pathogens use in situ to adapt and develop tolerance to stresses they encounter in the food environment. RNA isolation and reverse-transcription (RT),PCR protocols were developed as tools to detect gene expression in bacteria on beef carcass surfaces. The utility of these procedures was demonstrated by detecting the expression of a selectively-inducible green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene in a plasmid-transformed strain of Escherichia coli O157:H7 inoculated onto beef carcass surface tissue. These procedures should serve as useful tools for studying the genetic responses of bacteria when exposed to antimicrobial interventions applied to food animal carcasses. [source]

Diet of free-ranging domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) in rural Zimbabwe: implications for wild scavengers on the periphery of wildlife reserves

ANIMAL CONSERVATION, Issue 1 2002
J. R. A. Butler
Numbers of free-ranging dogs (Canis familiaris) have reached unprecedented levels in Zimbabwean communal lands (agropastoralist rural areas). This study examined the potential competitive interactions between dogs and wild scavengers on the boundary of Gokwe Communal Land (GCL) and the Sengwa Wildlife Research Area (SWRA) in 1995,96. Dietary studies showed that dogs were primarily scavengers of human waste and animal carcasses. Twelve experimental carcasses indicated that dogs were the most successful species in the vertebrate scavenger guild, consuming 60% of available biomass and finding 66.7% of carcasses. Dogs monopolized the supply of domestic animal carrion within GCL, but also consumed wild carrion up to 1 km within the SWRA, and were seen 3 km inside the reserve. Their principal competitors for carcasses were vultures, and to a lesser degree lions (Panthera leo), leopards (P. pardus) and spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta). Dogs outcompete vultures on wildlife reserve boundaries owing to their high densities, nocturnal and diurnal activity, physical dominance and greater tolerance of human disturbance. With a population growth rate of 6.5% per annum the influence of dogs will intensify on the peripheries of reserves, exacerbating their existing threat to wild scavengers. This scenario is probably occurring in many other African countries. [source]