A mysterious neurological disease is afflicting endangered Florida panthers
A disease known as feline leukomyelopathy has likely stricken 48 panthers and bobcats, leading to concerns about the impact on Florida’s state animal.
A Florida panther kitten born to a mother with feline leukomyelopathy (FLM), a newly discovered neurological disorder, is examined at Zoo Tampa by veterinarian Lauren Smith. This kitten and its sibling were deemed healthy but the mother didn’t recover from the disease.
ByDouglas Main
Email
Once ranging throughout the U.S. Southeast, Florida panthers nearly went extinct due to widespread hunting. By the 1970s there were fewer than 30 left. Though the endangered cats have rebounded significantly in the last couple decades, with a total population around 200, their future remains tenuous.
More than 430 manatees have perished in 2021. Why are they dying?
Scientists are searching for answers as to why more Florida manatees have died in the first two months of 2021 than in most of 2020.
Native grasses which once lined the bottoms of Florida’s springs such as Fanning Springs, pictured here are being choked out by algae fed by fertilizer and nutrient runoff. This lack of vegetation is causing many manatees to starve to death in the winter.
ByRebecca Renner
Email
Early this past winter, Martine de Wit noticed a spike in the number of manatees that were dying. At first, the veterinarian with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission attributed the surge to cold stress. De Wit was used to seeing some manatees sickened by the strain put on their sensitive bodies when water temperatures dip below 68 degrees Fahrenheit, as they did several times in December and January.
Horsetalk.co.nz Stabilility of bacterial communities in horse dung samples tested
File image.
How long can samples of horse manure be kept at room temperature before the bacterial composition starts to change significantly?
It is an important factor in field studies, where access to freezing or refrigeration may be limited or non-existent, resulting in samples remaining at room temperature until being taken to the laboratory.
Michelle Martin de Bustamante and her fellow researchers devised an experiment to determine how storage techniques may affect the collective community composition of bacteria present in horse feces (the fecal bacterial microbiota).
Eleven healthy adult horses from the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine equine research program were enrolled in the study.
Gainesville and Florida organizations assist in Key deer conservation and awareness
Meet some of the people responsible for giving a Key deer named Blue a home March 10, 2021 | 6:00am EST
Elliot Blue Monroe, a Key deer, eats his breakfast at the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo on Feb. 26, 2021. Key Deer Awareness Day is March 11, 2021.(Photo by Antonia LaRocca) Photo by Antonia LaRocca | The Independent Florida Alligator
Elliot Blue Monroe, a Key deer who goes by Blue, was alone and about the size of a housecat when people in Big Pine Key and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service observed him wandering alone in April.