Category: Science

BOOKS: Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed
by Marc Bekoff
New World Library (14 Pamaron Way, Novato, CA 94949), 2013. 381
pages, paperback. $15.95

On a breezy spring night at the dog park, your faithful
neutered friend humps a stranger’s dog––perhaps a female, perhaps
another male. Embarrassed, you race over, pulling away a bewildered
Rover and wondering why it happened. Humping, also known as mounting,
is a normal canine behavior, studied inconclusively by various
researchers for about as long as anyone has investigated dog psychology.

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Contraceptive researcher Wolfgang Jochle

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

 

Wolfgang J. Jochle, 86, died on November 14, 2013 at his home
in Manahawkin, New Jersey. Born in Munich, Germany, Jochle was
drafted into the Nazi Wehrmacht at age 15 and assigned to attend cavalry
horses. Jochle avoided starvation by sharing the horses’ oats,
longtime Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs board member Linda
Rhodes recalled when presenting him with a lifetime achievement award in
2006.

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Scientist who identified global warming threat to polar bears wins settlement

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2013:

 

WASHINGTON D.C.––Charles M. Monnett, 65, whose observation
of four polar bear carcasses floating in the Beaufort Sea in September
2004 drew global attention to the effects of global warming, on
November 15, 2013 accepted a six-point retirement agreement negotiated
by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in settlement of a whistleblower
complaint against the U.S. Department of Interior.
Monnett, then a senior scientist for the Bureau of Ocean &
Energy Management, discovered the polar bear remains while doing an
aerial search for endangered bowhead whales with colleague Jeffrey
Gleason, who later left the BOEM. The bears were 125 to 185 miles from
the nearest sea ice. Only 12 polar bears had been observed swimming in
the preceding 25 years of aerial marine mammal surveys, and none had
ever been found dead at sea.

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Ignoring Nature No More: The Case for Compassionate Conservation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2013: (Actually published on November 20,  2013.)

 Ignoring Nature No More:  The Case for Compassionate Conservation Edited by Marc Bekoff The University of Chicago Press,  Ltd.  (427 East 60th St.,  Chicago,  IL 60637), 2013. 456 pages.  Paperback $38.00.  Kindle $19.89.

When I was a child,  the Earth seemed huge and full of exciting places where wild animals roamed,  where as yet no human had set foot.  There were only three billion of us back then. Feeding us all seemed to be the main problem.   Read more

James Harlan Steele, 1st U.S. public health vet

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2013: (Actually published on November 20,  2013.)

James Harlan Steele,  DVM,  100,  died on November 10,  2013.  Earning his veterinary diploma from Michigan State University in 1941,  and a masters degree in public health from Harvard a year later,  Steele served in the U.S. Public Health Service during World War II,   stationed in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.   Read more

BOOKS—Human Origins: Are we hybrids?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2013: (Actually published on October 8,  2013)

Human Origins:  Are we hybrids?   by Eugene McCarthy Free download from:  http://www.macroevolution.net/human-origins.html#.Ud5d8GSgn6k

Recalling my April 2012 review of evolutionary geneticist Eugene McCarthy’s provocative opus On the Origins of New Forms of Life:  A New Theory,  British ANIMAL PEOPLE online reader Mervyn Sanders wrote recently to mention that “Dr. McCarthy is now claiming that humans are a hybrid of chimp and wait for it, pig.  Yet he appears to be able to back his claims up with well researched evidence.” Read more

Publications: The Endangered Species Act & “Sound Science”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  July-August 2013:

The Endangered Species Act & “Sound Science” by M. Lynne Corn,  Kristina Alexander,  & Eugene Buck Congressional Research Service,  2013.  Free download from <www.crs.gov>

This 30-page document summarizes controversies over alleged “junk science” used in determining the endangered species status of Canada lynx,  hatchery-raised salmon,  Stellar sea lions,  gray wolves in the eastern states,  and endangered species issues pertaining to climate change.   Read more

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