Brazil green lights Amazon dams

The BBC has news that the Brazilian government has given the initial go-ahead for the construction of two hydro-electric dams on the Madeira River, the biggest tributary of the Amazon. The impact to the Amazonian environment is bound to be enormous if the project runs through to completion. Full story.

The Madeira River projects have divided opinion even within government and in recent years have been one of the most environmentally sensitive issues.

The river is said to have one of the most diverse fish stocks in the world.

Environmentalists fear they could be threatened by the development of the dams costing billions of dollars.

Dodos and Mammoths: The DNA Hunt

It's been quite a month for the potential discovery of ancient DNA.

First up is the recent discovery of a well preserved Dodo skeleton on the island of Mauritius. National Geographic News has the story...

Researchers say the find would likely yield the first useful samples of the extinct, flightless bird's DNA. Very little has been known about the dodo—from what exactly it looked like to what it ate—since it became extinct in the 1600s.

The new skeleton is thought to be complete and was likely preserved by its cave setting. The cavers found the remains off the coast of Africa on Mauritius, the only island were dodos were known to have lived.

Far to the North, a baby mammoth has been unearthed in Siberia and is due to be shipped to Japan for analysis. It is said to be the best preserved specimen of its type, and some scientists are desperate to try and recover some intact DNA to attempt a cloning process. BBC News has the story (including a video report)...

The six-month-old female calf was discovered on the Yamal peninsula of Russia and is thought to have died 10,000 years ago.

The animal's trunk and eyes are still intact and some of its fur remains on the body.
[...]
Larry Agenbroad, director of the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs research centre in South Dakota, US, said: "To find a juvenile mammoth in any condition is extremely rare." Dr Agenbroad added that he knew of only three other examples.

Some scientists hold out hope that well preserved sperm or other cells containing viable DNA could be used to resurrect the mammoth lineage.

Despite the inherent difficulties, Dr Agenbroad remains optimistic about the potential for cloning.

"When we got the Jarkov mammoth [found frozen in Taimyr, Siberia, in 1997], the geneticists told me: 'if you can get us good DNA, we'll have a baby mammoth for you in 22 months'," he told BBC News.

Quest: Mountain Gorillas

Discovery Channel's blog Quest: Mountain Gorillas is an excellent resource for learning more about the work being done Dr. Lucy Spelman who has been working with Rwanda's Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project since 2006.

Lucy's most recent entry is a welcome bit of news on gorilla orphan Ndakasi, who has been fighting a severe illness.

Thirty-six hours later I returned to the DRC. This time I was all smiles at the border crossing. In broken French, I explained to the customs officials that the baby gorilla was better. She'd taken her first bottle at 3 a.m. the night before and had continued to drink small amounts of milk throughout the day. When I'd made the crossing earlier in the week, the officials had laughed incredulously at the idea of treating a baby gorilla. But now they were curious about her. They nodded and smiled back at the good news.

Iain Gardner Animations

I thought I'd share these interesting animations by Iain Gardner from the UK.

Firstly, check out his film "Flight of the Dodo" which features Carl Jones talking about his work in Mauritius with the Pink Pigeon and Echo Parakeet.

And now, check out these "Sketchbook" animations of endangered animals such as Aye-Aye, Gorilla, Polar Bears and Rhinos. Iain says "These studies are as much about memory as they are observation. Memories are all we will have left of these species unless more is done to protect these wonderful creatures in the wild."

Aye-Aye Lemur

Gorilla

Stephen Fry: Doctor Who Magazine #384

Issue #384 of Doctor Who Magazine features a brief note in the Quickies section of "Beyond the TARDIS" regarding the current activities of Stephen Fry. This gives us renewed optimism that the Last Chance To See TV series is still forging ahead, despite the implosion of TV company Iostar.

Stephen Fry is working on six-part series Last Chance To See based on the Douglas Adams/Mark Carwardine book.

I know he's also working on series 2 of "Kingdom", has written a version of Cinderella for the stage, rumoured to be writing the screenplay of Peter Jackson's remake of "The Dambusters", making a documentary about HIV, employing an assistant to help with his online social networking, and would like to make some new Jeeves and Woosters with Hugh Laurie. A busy boy indeed!

COOL!! Jenson Button's F1 car now displaying our website URL

You may recall that back in February I made the pledge to replace at least three regular lightbulbs in my house to the more energy efficient kind (which I have now done). To make my donation I visited Honda F1's 'Earth Car' site at www.myearthdream.com.

It's taken Honda a while, but since last week's French Grand Prix at Magny Cours, all the names are on the cars, and perhaps we can take partial credit for Jenson scoring his first point of the season(?).

Most amazing of all, (and MANY thanks to eagle-eyed viewer Garry Mills for this) we can now actually SEE the evidence in close-up! This screenshot was snagged by Garry while it displayed last week's French GP Qualifying session results. Click on the image to get a much closer look, where I've actually hyperlinked some of the other visible URLs. Gotta love the HenCam!


This is where the Another Chance To See entry is actually located...


Good luck to Jenson Button and the HondaF1 team in this weekend's British Grand Prix, and also to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton up at the sharp-end! He's doing an amazing job right now, and I'm sure Silverstone will be sold-out this weekend as a result.

Komodo Dragon dies at Akron Zoo

Ohio.com reports the sad news that a 16 year old Komodo Dragon has died at Akron Zoo.

Contessa, the Akron Zoo's Komodo dragon, died on Tuesday from a ruptured abdominal blood vessel.

Zoo spokesman David Barnhardt said staff members noticed the Komodo dragon displaying abnormal behavior Tuesday and immediately transferred her to the animal hospital for tests. She died a short time later.