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Genetically-Engineered, Extra-Muscular Dogs Created by Chinese Scientists

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Photo Credit: The Independent Chinese scientists have created genetically-engineered, extra-muscular dogs, after editing the genes of the animals for the first time.

The scientists create beagles that have double the amount of muscle mass by deleting a certain gene, reports the MIT Technology Review. The mutant dogs have “more muscles and are expected to have stronger running ability, which is good for hunting, police (military) applications”, Liangxue Lai, one of the researchers on the project, told the magazine.

Now the team hope to go on to create other modified dogs, including those that are engineered to have human diseases like muscular dystrophy or Parkinson’s. Since dogs’ anatomy is similar to those of humans’, intentionally creating dogs with certain human genetic traits could allow scientists to further understand how they occur . . .

Recent developments in genome editing allow scientists to edit out or change genes relatively easily. The scientists said that the muscular dogs were mostly a proof of concept, and that they hope to go on to create more edited dogs. (Read more from “Genetically-Engineered, Extra-Muscular Dogs Created by Chinese Scientists” HERE)

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According to Research, Chimpanzees Love Horror Films [+video]

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Chimpanzee-TV-GettyHorror is possibly the most divisive film genres: people either absolutely love the thrills or can’t bear the thought of sitting through two hours of the Exorcist without breaking into a minor sweat.

According to researchers in Japan, Chimpanzees fall into the first group. When shown a ‘horror’ film, featuring an actor dressed as a King Kong attacking a human, the selected Chimps watched on intensely, neither covering their eyes nor accepting treats as they may distract from the viewing.

In the 40-second film, King Kong is taunted by a human on the other side of a cage. The ape then breaks free, attacking the human. The human then grabs a red hammer and precedes to hit King Kong. Frightening stuff.

The mini-film was shown twice to the Chimpanzees, 24 hours apart from each other, each time their eyes being tracked. On second showing, the red hammer changed locations. Watch the video below – the red dots represent where they are looking.

(Read more from “According to Research, Chimpanzees Love Horror Films” HERE)

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What’s Happening to All the Animals? Mysterious Fungus Killing Snakes in 9 States; Deer Dropping Dead Around California Lake

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Wilson Ring. Hidden on hillsides in a remote part of western Vermont, a small number of venomous timber rattlesnakes slither among the rocks, but their isolation can’t protect them from a mysterious fungus spreading across the eastern half of the country that threatens to wipe them out.

In less than a decade, the fungus has been identified in at least nine Eastern states, and although it affects a number of species, it’s especially threatening to rattlesnakes that live in small, isolated populations with little genetic diversity, such as those found in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York.

In Illinois the malady threatens the eastern massasauga rattlesnake, which was a candidate for the federal endangered species list even before the fungus appeared. (Read more from “Mysterious Fungus Killing Snakes in 9 States” HERE)

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Wildlife Officials Puzzled Why Deer Are Dropping Dead Around Lodi Lake

By Anjali Hemphill. Dead deer have been showing up at a popular hiking area near Lodi Lake.

Four carcasses have been found in just the last two months in a mystery for wildlife officials.

The dead deer have been found in the same general area along a walking trail near Lodi Lake.

Animal services officer Brena DeFazio says four deer carcasses have turned up near Lodi Lake in just the last two months.

“It’s very concerning to us,” she said. “We have not found this many deceased deer in the nature area of Lodi in the time that I’ve been employed there.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Cat Survives 2-Month Move to Fairbanks, Alaska Inside Mattress [+video]

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Moosie is finally among his fellow moose in Alaska after spending two months traveling in a mattress.

In April, the 2-year-old tabby’s owners, Kymberly and Jesse Chelf, were packing up to move from El Paso, Texas, to Jesse’s new army assignment in Fairbanks, Alaska, when Moosie disappeared, reports the Associated Press.

“We just assumed he had run away, which was very unlike Moosie,” Kymberly Chelf said. “He’s just a very loyal, loving cat.”

The feline was still MIA when the movers arrived to begin the long 3,700-mile journey to the last frontier, so the Chelfs stayed behind three extra days searching for their beloved pet. Alas, their search turned up nothing . . .

It took 64 days for all of the belongings, cat-carrying futon included, to arrive in Fairbanks. As soon as the mattress was unwrapped and taken into the house, Moosie made his presence known, letting out his mightiest meow. (Read more from “Cat Survives 2-Month Move to Alaska Inside Mattress” HERE)

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North Carolina Youths in Stable Condition After Losing Limbs in Shark Attack

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By Fox News. Two North Carolina kids were reported in stable condition late Sunday after losing limbs in separate shark attacks approximately two hours apart.

Oak Island Mayor Betty Wallace told the Wilmington Star-News that a 12-year-old girl lost part of her left arm and might lose her left leg, while a 16-year-old boy lost his left arm. Brain Watts, Brunswick County’s emergency management director, told the paper Sunday that both victims were out of surgery. Wallace said the girl was not from the area, but was visiting family. There was no immediate information about the 16-year-old boy.

Brunswick County Dispatchers said that they received the call at 4:12 p.m. and several agencies responded to the scene including Oak Island Police and the Air Link Helicopter. The second incident was reported at 5:30 Sunday.

The Oak Island town manager sent an ATV to get everyone out of the water, the mayor said, adding that the Brunswick County Sheriff’s office was going to send a helicopter up and down the coast to patrol. (Read more from “North Carolina Youths in Stable Condition After Losing Limbs in Shark Attack” HERE)

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Animals Roam Streets of Tbilisi After Flooding Kills 12, Frees Zoo Animals

By Kimberly Hutcherson and Don Melvin. Wild animals roamed the streets of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, on Sunday, after raging floodwaters damaged the city’s zoo and set many of the animals free.

Twelve people died in the flooding, according to Civil Georgia, a news website run by the nongovernmental organization UN Association of Georgia.

Several others were missing, and wolves, bears, big cats and even a hippopotamus were wandering the streets of the city, according to Civil.ge, a news agency funded by the EU and the UN.

Of the zoo’s 600 residents, including fish and birds, about half were missing on Sunday, theTbilisi Zoo said.

Some animals have been recaptured, Civil.ge reported. Others have been killed. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Teen Bitten by Water Moccasin He Kept on His Bed

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

A Florida teen took his love of snakes a little too far last weekend when the venomous water moccasin he kept in a pillowcase on his bed escaped and bit him on the lip.

Austin Hatfield, 18, is recovering from extreme swelling at a Tampa hospital, still too sick to talk to officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who want to know more about his capturing snakes without a permit.

Hatfield caught the pit viper – also known as a cottonmouth – last week and kept it in his room, bragging to friend he had kissed the serpent.

“He kisses it right on the head. Right on the mouth. He’s not afraid of death,” said Hatfield’s best friend, Jason Belcher.

That all changed over the weekend when the snake escaped from its pillowcase, slithered across Hatfield’s stomach and onto the floor, reported the Tampa Tribune. It struck when Hatfield tried to recapture it. (Read more from “Teen Bitten by Water Moccasin He Kept on His Bed” HERE)

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Race to Modify the DNA of Endangered Animals and Resurrect Extinct Ones [+video]

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mammothDe-extinction, or the idea of bringing extinct species back from the dead, has come a long way over the quarter century since Jurassic Park was first published. It has now matured into a quasi-serious science and has even been the subject of its own TEDx conference.

Of course, no-one is talking about bringing back dinosaurs – their DNA is lost for good – but some scientists are proposing to resurrect a range of other, more-recently extinct species such as the passenger pigeon and the gastric-brooding frog, both lost within living memory.

There are quite a few animals that have become extinct relatively recently that are potential candidates for de-extinction. They include the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, a large marsupial carnivore wiped out by sheep ranchers a century ago, the Pyrenean ibex which was hunted for sport until the last one fell dead in 2000, and the Steller’s sea cow, a gentle giant annihilated by hungry sailors in the 18th century.

Perhaps the most emblematic of them all is the woolly mammoth. There are few animals that better represent the lost world of the Pleistocene than these huge, shaggy relatives of the modern elephant. Woolly mammoths roamed the vast grassy steppe of Eurasia and North America for hundreds of millennia. The very last individuals were an isolated population of pygmy woolly mammoths that lived on Wrangel Island off northern Russia about 4,500 years ago.

There is no shortage of woolly mammoth tissue, some of it remarkably well preserved in the permafrost of Siberia and some scientists are confident that they can extract its DNA to bring the species back to life, either as clones or as a kind of mammoth-elephant hybrid. (Read more from “Race to Modify the DNA of Endangered Animals and Resurrect Extinct Ones” HERE)

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