© Neil Hammerschlag

University of Miami’s Neil Hammerschlag and collaborators from the University of British Columbia and Texas State University collected data on 340 natural predatory attacks by white sharks on Cape fur seals in False Bay, South Africa. They found that spatial patterns of shark predation were not random and that smaller sharks had more dispersed prey search patterns and lower kill success rates than larger sharks.

What do great white sharks have in common with serial killers? Refined hunting skills, according to a paper recently published in the Zoological Society of London’s Journal of Zoology. Researchers have found that sharks hunt in a highly focused fashion, just like serial criminals.  Predation is one of the most fundamental and fascinating interactions in nature, and sharks are some of the fiercest predators on Earth. However, their hunting pattern is difficult to study because it is rarely observed in the wild. As a result, shark predatory behavior has remained much of a mystery. Now, researchers from the United States and Canada are using geographic profiling — a criminal investigation tool used to track a connected series of crimes and locate where serial criminals live — to examine the hunting patterns of white sharks in South Africa.

Using this tool, scientists looked at the predatory interactions between white sharks and Cape fur seals at Seal Island in False Bay, South Africa. They found that sharks possess a well-defined anchor point or search base for hunting, but not where the chances of prey interception were greatest. Instead the attacks seemed to take place at strategic locations that could offer a balance of prey detection, capture rates, and inter-shark competition. “The study expands our knowledge of how large predators hunt and offers a new scientific reference for studying other predator-prey systems,” explained Neil Hammerschlag, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and co-principal investigator of the study.

“Sharks are apex predators, so studies of shark hunting behavior are important for understanding their ecology and role in structuring marine communities,” said Hammerschlag. “Our need for more knowledge of these fascinating animals has become critical because of recent drastic declines in their populations globally.”

In an awesome display of power and acrobatic prowess, white sharks attack prey with a sudden vertical rush that propels them out of the water. “They hunt solitary juvenile Cape fur seals when light levels are low, stalking them from near the ocean floor to remain undetected, before launching a vertical attack,” Hammerschlag said. “This strategy maximizes a shark’s chances of catching a seal unaware thus initiating a fatal first strike. Stealth and ambush are key elements in the white shark’s predatory strategy.”

Hammerschlag and his collaborators from the University of British Columbia and Texas State University collected data on 340 natural predatory attacks by sharks on seals in False Bay. They were able to observe natural predation by great white sharks because attacks occur at the water’s surface where they can be seen from a distance. The researchers found that spatial patterns of shark predation at this site were nonrandom and that smaller sharks had more dispersed prey search patterns and lower kill success rates than larger sharks.

This could mean that white sharks refine their search patterns with experience, and learn to concentrate hunting efforts in locations with the highest probability of successful prey capture. It might also suggest that larger sharks competitively exclude smaller sharks from the prime hunting areas.

The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Zoology and is now available as an advance online publication of the journal.The study uses geographic profiling for the first time in the marine environment. The technology was originally developed by study co-author Dr. Kim Rossmo of Texas State University to determine the most probable area for a criminal offender’s residence or anchor point, and has been used in a number of high-profile police investigations internationally.

In addition to applications in law enforcement, geographic profiling has also been applied to studies of the foraging behavior of bats and bumblebees, the spread of infectious diseases in Africa, and the structure of terrorist cells in the Middle East.

Journal reference:

1.. Hunting Patterns and Geographic Profiling of White Shark Predation. Journal of Zoology, June 22nd, 2009 DOI:link

Original article here

According to the world’s leading expert on polar bears, their numbers are higher than they were 30 years ago

Over the coming days a curiously revealing event will be taking place in Copenhagen. Top of the agenda at a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group (set up under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature/Species Survival Commission) will be the need to produce a suitably scary report on how polar bears are being threatened with extinction by man-made global warming. This is one of a steady drizzle of events planned to stoke up alarm in the run-up to the UN’s major conference on climate change in Copenhagen next December. But one of the world’s leading experts on polar bears has been told to stay away from this week’s meeting, specifically because his views on global warming do not accord with those of the rest of the group.

Dr Mitchell Taylor has been researching the status and management of polar bears in Canada and around the Arctic Circle for 30 years, as both an academic and a government employee. More than once since 2006 he has made headlines by insisting that polar bear numbers, far from decreasing, are much higher than they were 30 years ago. Of the 19 different bear populations, almost all are increasing or at optimum levels, only two have for local reasons modestly declined.

Dr Taylor agrees that the Arctic has been warming over the last 30 years. But he ascribes this not to rising levels of CO2 – as is dictated by the computer models of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and believed by his PBSG colleagues – but to currents bringing warm water into the Arctic from the Pacific and the effect of winds blowing in from the Bering Sea.

He has also observed, however, how the melting of Arctic ice, supposedly threatening the survival of the bears, has rocketed to the top of the warmists’ agenda as their most iconic single cause. The famous photograph of two bears standing forlornly on a melting iceberg was produced thousands of times by Al Gore, the WWF and others as an emblem of how the bears faced extinction – until last year the photographer, Amanda Byrd, revealed that the bears, just off the Alaska coast, were in no danger. Her picture had nothing to do with global warming and was only taken because the wind-sculpted ice they were standing on made such a striking image.

Dr Taylor had obtained funding to attend this week’s meeting of the PBSG, but this was voted down by its members because of his views on global warming. The chairman, Dr Andy Derocher, a former university pupil of Dr Taylor’s, frankly explained in an email (which I was not sent by Dr Taylor) that his rejection had nothing to do with his undoubted expertise on polar bears: “it was the position you’ve taken on global warming that brought opposition”.

Dr Taylor was told that his views running “counter to human-induced climate change are extremely unhelpful”. His signing of the Manhattan Declaration – a statement by 500 scientists that the causes of climate change are not CO2 but natural, such as changes in the radiation of the sun and ocean currents – was “inconsistent with the position taken by the PBSG”.

So, as the great Copenhagen bandwagon rolls on, stand by this week for reports along the lines of “scientists say polar bears are threatened with extinction by vanishing Arctic ice”. But also check out Anthony Watt’s Watts Up With That website for the latest news of what is actually happening in the Arctic. The average temperature at midsummer is still below zero, the latest date that this has happened in 50 years of record-keeping. After last year’s recovery from its September 2007 low, this year’s ice melt is likely to be substantially less than for some time. The bears are doing fine.

original articel here

Actually there is not but every now and then Sabalo is graced with the presence of a volunteer medical staff to help this and surrounding communities.

Sabalo is centered around a number of other small, poor and remote communities within this particular area of the Osa Peninsula. Sabalo also has a community center that has been used for many years to accommodate visits from volunteer medical and dental staff.

It had been several years however since anyone had visited the community so when word got out that a full staff of medical volunteers were coming everyone in the village came together to clean up the community center for their arrival.

The medical staff was able to drive into the community of Sabalo as they arrived well before rainy season started and the road was still in good shape.

The community coming together to help unload the supplies and equipment of the medical staff.

The community center – the grounds were cleaned of tall grass and the building swept and mopped. Families begin to line up with their children to the right before everything is even unloaded from the truck. The black plastic tarp was added for more shade because of limited space.

We had people come in all the way from Drake Bay and surrounding areas. They came by car, motorcycle, boat and horse. The medical staff consisted of: a doctor, nurse, dentist, dental assistant, pharmacist and three other individuals assisting the group.

The medical staff was here for three days and two nights. By far the most popular person was the dentist. Nobody could remember the last time an actual dentist came out to volunteer his services. The poor dentist had no idea what he was in store for. He saw patients steadily for all three days from morning until dusk.

The dentist drill had to be powered by a small generator. Sabalo lodge donated all the gas necessary to keep that generator going for all three days so that everyone that wanted dental work done was able to receive it.

The dentist and his assistant came fully prepared including the carpet to cover the cement floor, portable chair, drills in the background and a utensil sterilizing kit.

It was really touching to see these selfless acts by this group of physicians and the difference they made in the lives of the under privileged people who live remotely. The event was a huge success and the doctors seemed to beam with as much satisfaction as the people they helped. The medical staff vowed to make sure their next visit would not be as long as the last one.

A BIG Thank You to this Special Group.

A group photo of the volunteer medical staff.

Thank you for reading our post,

Dan & Holly Pesta
www.sabalolodge.com

Currently the best way to get to Sabalo Eco Lodge and the community of Sabalo is by boat. The problem with that is that we are all limited by the tides on when we can enter and leave. To enter the community of Sabalo by boat you have to go through the mangroves and the water level can change as much as six feet during a twelve hour period. This allows for a window of about four hours during each high tide to leave and come back.

There is a road across the Sierpe River from the town of Sierpe that goes all the way to the community of Sabalo and Sablo Eco Lodge. Currently if you want to drive that road you have to take the antiquated ferry across the river as seen below.

The entrance to the road to nowhere can be seen right behnd the ferry.

The ferry is powered by a small boat tied to its side. The boat engine is in as bad of shape as the ferry, lol.

The road is mainly accessible during the dry season, December through April. The road is a red clay type soil and every year when it rains the road gets rutted out badly and there is no traction on the wet clay for your tires.

Each dry season a tractor comes through to smooth the road out once again until the rains come and destroy it all over again. This year the municipality finally sprung for big cement drainage pipes to help keep the water off the roads during rainy season. The municipality did not pay for anything else however. There are a number of families that use this road year round to get into town, mostly on motorcycles. That’s because not everyone can afford a boat and gas is much cheaper when going by motorcycle than by boat.

This year the communities came together and everyone contributed as much money as they could for the rental of a tractor to bury the cement drainage pipes. We all also donated time for labor to get these pipes placed into the road.

Trucks line up for the ferry to deliver the cement drainage pipes along the road to nowhere.

One of the trucks making a delivery right outside our gate.

It took about six weeks to complete the project from Sierpe to Sabalo and the water has been successfully diverted from most of the road. Unfortunately when you have 200 inches of rain a year and a clay soil road you are still going to get some rough spots. All in all though our efforts have greatly improved what I call our “Road to Nowhere”.

Once you leave the community of Sabalo the road continues all the way to Drake Bay. It also continues to degrade even more and is really only accessible by 4×4 ATVs and motorcycles. If you want to walk to Drake it will take nine to twelve hours depending on your hiking skills.

A trench is dug by the tractor across the road.

The cement pipes are lowered into the trench attached by a chain to the tractor.

Dan and Aleberto check the alignment of the pipe as it is lowered in the trench.

Next year we are supposed to get tractors to grade the road properly and add gravel and bridges over the rough spots. We need some bridges as you can see from the picture here where the water washed out the road. The bridge in the picture with Daisy on it was something that was built by the community but is no longer functional; it held up for less than a year.

There used to be a road where this stream is now.

Yes at one time we drove cars over this bridge

Since the bridge and road are gone this is now our alternative for crossing this part of the road, UG!

The big plan for the future is to build the next international airport of Costa Rica which has already been approved just outside of our sleepy little town of Sierpe. There is also approval for a bridge to cross the Sierpe River so you won’t have to use our rickety ferry. The road will one day be complete so you can drive all the way to Drake Bay. That would mean you would not have to fly into San Jose anymore; you could fly direct from any country right to the southern part of Costa Rica: the Osa Peninsula.

Those plans will not come to fruition for some time however and we are fine with that. Part of the charm of Sabalo Eco Lodge is that it can be difficult to get to thus keeping it pristine and quiet. When the airport, bridge, road and even electricity comes to our quiet little community things will never be the same again. Sabalo Eco Lodge will probably have a neon sign at that point and a little Starbucks franchise (not really but I like to joke about that). In the meantime, if you would like to take the “Road to Nowhere” and enjoy the solitude of the rainforest you can come see us anytime or we can pick you up by boat.

The road to nowhere as it winds up the mountain.

A view from the top: the Sierpe River as it winds through the mangroves, Violin Island in the background to the right and Drake bay over to the left.

Thanks for reading our post,

Dan & Holly Pesta
Owners Sabalo Eco Lodge – Costa Rica
www.sabalolodge.com