Wildlife stuff from the week 9-15/7/12

Want to know whether a species exists, or has already been recorded? Look it up!
'One million species, and counting'
"The million species described on EOL represent just over half of the 1.8 million that have so far been named by scientists worldwide. Estimates for the full number of species on Earth range from 3 million to as many as 100 million."
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-million-species.html
The site:
http://eol.org/

'India floods kill threatened rhinos'
Flooding in Assam has displaced 6 million people, killed 130, more than 500 deer, 14 rhinos, and 2 elephant calves.
So many grizzly ways to die -- so much for a loving god/planet!

http://phys.org/news/2012-07-india-threatened-rhinos.html

'Leatherback turtle eggs crushed in Trinidad'
Bloody hell. This is going to put their work back a bit!
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-leatherback-turtle-eggs-trinidad.html

'German arrested for stealing iguanas from Galapagos'
"The Galapagos National Park said its security guards had intercepted the man on Monday at the airport on the archipelago after he was seen carrying a suspicious package, which was found to contain four lizards wrapped in canvas."
"[He] faces a prison sentence of up to three years if convicted of the charges."
The guy was probably only doing it so he could add them to his collection, or sell them on to someone else for their own!
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-german-iguanas-galapagos.html
'1,500 aquarium fish, corals seized at Manila pier'
A mystery person (because they ran off) has attempted to smuggle 1500 aquarium fish and 150 pieces of brain coral, from the Phillipines, to Japan.
"The export of live aquarium fish without a permit is forbidden, and gathering or possessing corals is illegal in the Philippines. A conviction for those crimes can lead to up to eight years in prison, Menguito said."
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-aquarium-fish-corals-seized-manila.html

What makes Indo-Pacific coral more resilient to environmental challenges than Caribbean coral? Slower growing seaweed, and herbivorous fish...
'Our coral reefs: in trouble, but tougher than we thought'
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-coral-reefs-tougher-thought.html

After the mystery deaths of green turtles, off Australia, in June, Brazil's got a mystery on its hands - the deaths of 512 Magellanic penguins.
They were found well fed, not exhausted, and not suffering injuries or oil stains.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-penguins-dead-brazil-beaches.html

The rodenticides that cannabis farmers have been using, to protect their plants when young, have also been poisoning the local fisher populations.
(Fishers are animals similar to weasels)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_%28animal%29
It seems unlikely that cannabis farmers would use non-rodent-toxic rodenticide (oxymoron!) if cannabis were legal. However, legalisation means regulation means controlled circumstances, means rodenticide not leaking into the fishers' diets. Maybe.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-poisons-wildlife.html

Sloths like chocolate, it seems - but not bananas or pineapples.
As a matter of fact, it's not the fruit the sloths want - they just need apposite vegetation, by which to commute toward females, food, etc.
Cacao trees fulfill this need, whereas banana plants, pineapple trees, and, more obviously, grasslands, do not.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-cacao-farm-sloths-chocolate-source.html

Everybody say "awwwwww..." Poor thing.
'6-day-old panda dies of pneumonia at Tokyo zoo'
"Tokyo's Ueno Zoo said the male panda, which had not been named yet, died of pneumonia Wednesday morning. A zookeeper found the baby, who was born last Thursday, lying belly up and not breathing, on his 7-year-old mother's chest."
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-giant-panda-born-week-tokyo.html