That Animal Dude

Senior college student studying anthrozoology. Let’s explore some weird stuff.

[thatanimaldude]

Zoos

Sea Otters are endangered marine mammals and are the only marine mammals without a blubber layer. Due to their unique personalities, they are very popular animals to exhibit in zoos and aquariums. Providing otters with a good diet is a priority to keep them healthy and energetic for visitors to see. They feed on a variety of prey, often preferring clams, crab, sea urchin, and abalones.  Developing a diet plan involves observing wild sea otters and the functional anatomy of their digestive tract, dental morphology, and the effects that foraging and diet have on social behavior. 

A voluntary survey of otter diets was sent out to 26 institutions, gaining 24 responses. This gave data on 65 otters: 40 females and 25 males. Their regular diets and enrichment totalled 58 species of bony fish and macroinvertebrates. Of the 24 institutions that responded, 87% provide roughage (shells and bones) for enrichment. It has proven to be quite a challenge for zoos to provide sea otters with diets that closely replicate what they eat in the wild. Most of their food in captivity is commercially caught and purchased. The dominant food fed to captive otters is bony fish, which is only eaten seasonally in the wild, and captive diets lack the sea urchin which wild otters enjoy eating, with only 4% of institutions even using it for enrichment. These institutions fed the sea otters 18% of their body weight on average, while wild otters need to eat 25% of their body weight because they need more energy every day for foraging dives, swimming, and grooming. 

Though they look cute and cuddly enough to be great pets, sea otters are actually pretty hard to take care of. This study proves that there’s really a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to care of zoo animals, even if they do look like a cross between a puppy and a teddy bear.

Source: Hempstead, C., & Larson, S. (2019). Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris) Diet Diversity in Zoos and Aquariums. Aquatic Mammals, 45(4), 374–379. https://doi-org.beaconcollege.idm.oclc.org/10.1578/AM.45.4.2019.374

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Tarantulas

Tarantulas are directly affected by environmental temperatures due to the fact that they are ectotherms. All of their biological processes are dependent on environmental temperature because of this. Thermal conditions affect activity periods of tarantulas . Thermal biology affects thermal preference, critical thermal limits, and locomotor performance. Understanding physiological responses is of high priority because of the global climate change crisis and its associated consequences. This increase in temperature affects thermal biology on a large scale. 

The Argentinian tarantula inhabits mountainous grasslands, which are humid and temperate. It occupies shallow burrows under stones, and has now been listed as vulnerable by the IUCN & red list of threatened species because even cozy burrows can’t protect animals from climate change. A study was done in attempts to explore the thermal biology of juvenile and adult tarantulas, hypothesizing their preferred temperature limits were different. Locomotor performance was affected greatly by temperature, and internal sensitivity was higher at lower temperature ranges. The preferred temperatures were explored under laboratory conditions (tarantulas bred in laboratory, temperature gradient for testing), and the relationship between temperature and locomotor performance was evaluated with a thermal performance curve. The participating spiders were left undisturbed for four hours, with their temperatures being checked every half hour with an infrared thermometer. Sprint speed was used to test locomotion, with sealed tubes of water at different temperatures being used, then speed being measured after the spiders were removed from the tube. 

Individuals who were still able to move freely chose to stay in their preferred temperature zones. No significant difference was found between juveniles and adult females. There was a significant difference in sprint speed between temperatures, and the highest temperature sensitivity was recorded in the lowest temperature ranges. Extremely high temperature also negatively affects performance.

Source: Schwerdt, L., de Villalobos, A. E., Pérez-Miles, F., & Ferretti, N. (2020). Thermal preferences and effects of temperature on fitness parameters of an endemic Argentinean tarantula (Grammostola vachoni). Canadian Journal of Zoology, 98(2), 134–141. https://doi-org.beaconcollege.idm.oclc.org/10.1139/cjz-2019-0180

[thatanimaldude]

Animals in Science

In use of animals in science, there are three main goals to improve ethics: Replace where necessary with non-animal methods, reduce the minimum number of animals needed for a result, and refine the care and use of animals. Animal research and testing is performed to learn more about species other than the animal being used as a model. Detailed planning is done from day one to take internal and external parameters that affect animals’ responses to the procedure into account. The quality of animal experiments is increasingly being criticized. 

The ARRIVE (Animal Rescue: Reporting on In Vivo Experiments) guidelines for animal experiments states that collaboration between scientists and animal facility staff members is needed, as happy animals give better results since they are not stressed. The PREPARE (Planning Research and Experimental Procedures on Animals: Recommendations for Excellence) state that there should be a checklist present as a reminder of items that should be considered before and during the study. 

Source: Adrian J. Smith. (2020). Guidelines for planning and conducting high-quality research and testing on animals. Laboratory Animal Research, 36(1), 1–6. https://doi-org.beaconcollege.idm.oclc.org/10.1186/s42826-020-00054-0

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Wildlife

Human-wildlife interactions have become more frequent due to encroachment, which causes an increase in conflict and the transmission of zoonotic disease. This study examines the value of wildlife rehabilitation facilities admission records and tries to search for trends by identifying the top reasons for admission, how these occurrences are measured, and trends in disease cases. The scientists measured admissions in a central Ohio rehabilitation facility over the course of ten years, which included 45,668 individuals spread over 280 species. Each individual was assigned one of eight taxonomic groups and the researchers documented the cause of admission and assessed the average amount of changes per month. Overall, mammals were most frequently admitted, and the top specific causes were orphaned, dog attacks, cat attacks, and vehicle strikes. disease only accounted for 2.23%, or 1,018 cases. 

Source: Long, R. B., Krumlauf, K., & Young, A. M. (2020). Characterizing trends in human-wildlife conflicts in the American Midwest using wildlife rehabilitation records. PLoS ONE, 15(9), 1–17. https://doi-org.beaconcollege.idm.oclc.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238805

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Reticulated Pythons

There is a lengthy history between humans and pythons, with pythons being traded internationally for their skins and people using python-derived products in fashion, food, and traditional medicine. Reticulated pythons are found predominantly in SouthEast Asia, but there have been significant declines in the species due to this trade. This study identifies genetic lineages as targets for conservation. 89 samples were collected from the Philippines, which resulted in the reveal of 34 unique gene groups. This article justifies implementing a precautionary approach to population management, though further consideration and investigation is needed. 

Source: Gillian Murray-Dickson, Muhammad Ghazali, Rob Ogden, Rafe Brown, & Mark Auliya. (2017). Phylogeography of the reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus ssp.): Conservation implications for the worlds’ most traded snake species. PLoS ONE, 12(8), e0182049. https://doi-org.beaconcollege.idm.oclc.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182049

[thatanimaldude]

SeaWorld and Blackfish

SeaWorld was founded by four entrepreneurs in San Diego in 1964, and has expanded to Orlando and Austin. However, a devastating incident in February 2010 prompted a documentary that shows the inner workings of SeaWorld and how the animals are taken care of behind the scenes. In February of 2010, Dawn Brancheau was killed by the orca whale Tilikum. The Blackfish documentary debuted at Sundance Film Festival in 2013 documents Tilikum’s life up to the point of Brancheau’s death, and resulted in financial and reputational losses for SeaWorld. SeaWorld put out a website called ‘The SeaWorld Truth’ in order to combat the documentary, trying to state that their park is caring, truth-telling, and educating. But Blackfish had so many key points about trauma, the actual truth, and SeaWorld’s exploitations that SeaWorld’s captivity narrative was undermined. 

Source: Waller, R. L., & Iluzada, C. L. (2020). Blackfish and SeaWorld: A Case Study in the Framing of a Crisis. International Journal of Business Communication, 57(2), 227–243. https://doi-org.beaconcollege.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/2329488419884139

[thatanimaldude]

Companion Animals

The initial role of animals was transportation, agriculture, and food, but as society developed the number of pet animals has been rapidly increasing. This Brings both benefits and potential risks, for example bites, allergies, and the spread of zoonotic disease. However, the physical, mental, and psychosocial benefits outweigh these risks. As animals have become more therapeutic in nature, scientists have begun documenting how animals affect people of all ages. Companion animals may have an important influence on childhood in particular, as they can be shown to promote mental health, especially self-esteem and are particularly important to individuals who need additional physical, psychosocial, and emotional support. 

Source: McCLASKEY, B. (2019). Companion Animals and their Impact on Human Lives. Midwest Quarterly, 60(3), 335–350.

[thatanimaldude]

Cats

There is an estimated number of 600 million cats living among humans as companions and pest control. A vast majority of said cats are the products of random mating, which makes their genomic architecture similar to us humans in diversity. This means we can use cat genomes as a model for human medicine and disease cause. A female Abyssinian cat named ‘Cinnamon” is the current reference for genomes, and her genes help uncover disease-causing alleles and yields many biological insights. Scientists have used ‘Cinnamon’s’ genes to discover that a different gene than originally thought is associated with munchkin cats.  The authors hope that genomic medicine can be brought into veterinary clinics in order to functionally validate variants suspected of causing disease. 

Source: Zhang, W., & Schoenebeck, J. J. (2020). The ninth life of the cat reference genome, Felis_catus. PLoS Genetics, 16(10), 1–4. https://doi-org.beaconcollege.idm.oclc.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009045

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Animal Agriculture

The meat industry has negative environmental and financial impacts. The United States invests $35 billion to subsidize the meat and dairy industry, and this cost exceeds net economic benefits. In addition to meat and dairy, industrial fishing has impacted over half of the ocean’s surface and if these rates continue than a global collapse of all target fish species will occur. This article questions the norms of meat consumption and the symbiotic relationship between the industry and policy makers. These two are connected as modern animal agriculture is a predominant driver of climate change, as it is the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions globally and impacts vital natural resources. An example of this is that 80% of deforestation rates are caused by livestock. A way to combat this is by removing taxpayer dollars from animal agriculture and relocating these finances to the production of whole plant-based foods.  

Source: Sewell, C. (2020). Removing the Meat Subsidy: Our Cognitive Dissonance around Animal Agriculture. Journal of International Affairs, 73(1), 307–317.