tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/animal-799/articlesAnimal – The Conversation2023-06-13T15:20:24Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1868752023-06-13T15:20:24Z2023-06-13T15:20:24ZOf mice and matriarchs: the female-led societies of the animal kingdom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531349/original/file-20230612-19-2mtv89.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C69%2C5767%2C3560&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Meerkats live in matriarchal groups</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/three-suricate-standing-shortest-tallest-guarding-1454390834">Jason Boyce/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Queen Elizabeth II’s record-breaking long reign was exceptional in many ways - not least because England has been ruled by men for most of the last thousand years. Until recently, the crown was passed to the monarch’s eldest son and daughters were married off to royals in other countries.</p>
<p>But in most other social mammals, females commonly remain and breed in their birth groups, inheriting the status and territory of their mothers while sons <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(80)80103-5">leave to find unrelated partners elsewhere</a>. Social relationships between resident females vary but are often supportive. For example in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2008.03797.x">African elephants</a>, females assemble in family groups and older females are usually dominant over younger ones.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A herd of elephant walk towards the camera with all of them moving their trunks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486719/original/file-20220927-18-eelpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486719/original/file-20220927-18-eelpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486719/original/file-20220927-18-eelpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486719/original/file-20220927-18-eelpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486719/original/file-20220927-18-eelpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486719/original/file-20220927-18-eelpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486719/original/file-20220927-18-eelpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This family of elephants lives in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/herd-elephant-walk-towards-camera-all-215864620">Jonathan Pledger/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000334720500312X?via%3Dihub">Overt competition is rare</a> and relationships between matriarchs and younger females are relaxed and supportive. Elephant matriarchs act as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep27213">reservoirs of information</a> about where to find food and water and their presence is <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1057895">particularly important</a> in times of famine or drought.</p>
<p>Where species live in larger groups that include members of several families, as in <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2009.0118">yellow baboons</a> and <a href="https://rep.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/rep/108/2/jrf_108_2_010.xml">spotted hyenas</a> competition for status and resources can be more common and females often support close relatives in clashes with other families. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Yellow baboon female sitting with her baby in Liwonde national park, Malawi" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486720/original/file-20220927-14-kfwv23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486720/original/file-20220927-14-kfwv23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486720/original/file-20220927-14-kfwv23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486720/original/file-20220927-14-kfwv23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486720/original/file-20220927-14-kfwv23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486720/original/file-20220927-14-kfwv23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486720/original/file-20220927-14-kfwv23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Female yellow baboons are loyal to their closest relatives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/yellow-baboon-female-sitting-her-baby-2084970610">Tukio/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Daughters frequently inherit their mother’s social rank. All members of some families may be consistently dominant to others, often enjoying higher breeding success and survival as a result. </p>
<h2>Murderous mothers</h2>
<p>But females aren’t always tolerant or supportive. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2000.1631">the meerkats that I have studied</a> in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa for the last 30 years, one dominant female <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05386">monopolises breeding in each group</a>, producing up to three litters a year for up to ten years. Their daughters and sons <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11161200/">initially remain in their mother’s group</a> and help to feed and protect their younger siblings.</p>
<p>Queens go out of their way to prevent their daughters from breeding successfully. Early in my career, I was astonished to see one of my favourite meerkat queens emerge with blood on her muzzle from her group’s sleeping burrow, where her eldest daughter had just given birth. </p>
<p>This meerkat queen was pregnant at the time. She went back down and soon emerged with a dead pup that was still warm – then returned and brought up three more pups that she had just killed. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1998.0281">My team’s later work</a> showed that one of the most common causes of pup death was infanticide by pregnant females and <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Mammal+Societies-p-9781119095323">studies of several other social mammals</a> have revealed similar trends. </p>
<p>Killing your own grandchildren may not sound like a recipe for evolutionary success, but it often makes sense for pregnant female meerkats. If groups can only rear a small number of pups, queens will increase their genetic contributions to future generations if they suppress pups that will compete with their own offspring. </p>
<p>Daughters share 50% of their mother’s genes while grandchiLdren only share 25%, so it is in the queen’s best interests to make sure that their groups raise their daughters rather than their granddaughters.</p>
<p>When the daughters of meerkat queens are three to four years old, they become <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1998.0281">potential rivals to the queen</a> and she <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05386">evicts them from her group</a>. As members of other meerkat groups don’t allow emigrating females to join them, evicted females either found new groups with wandering males or (commonly) die in the attempt.</p>
<p>When a queen eventually dies, the other females in her group fight to inherit her position. The oldest and heaviest female usually wins, taking over the queen’s status, breeding role and territory before starting to evict her sisters. </p>
<h2>Walkabout sons</h2>
<p>And what about the queen’s sons? In most mammals, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05565.x">mating with a close relative</a> creates weaker and less healthy babies and reduces the breeding success of females. So female meerkats avoid mating with their sons, brothers and other relatives.</p>
<p>Males are usually less particular about who they mate with because they do not pay the same costs of raising young. However, where the females in their group are relatives and won’t mate with them, they need to leave their birth groups to find willing partners. </p>
<p>Unlike females, male meerkats voluntarily go walkabout, either replacing males in other groups or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12918">shacking up with evicted females</a> and attempting to found new groups. A similar tendency for females to avoid breeding with close relatives and for males to leave their birth groups to find willing partners elsewhere is common in many other mammals - including many species where males are substantially larger and stronger than females, like lions and baboons.</p>
<h2>Contrasts in succession</h2>
<p>But females don’t always stay at home - and males don’t always wander. There are some mammals where the situation is reversed. These include a number of bats, horses, monkeys - and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05232.x">all three African apes</a>. For example, female gorillas often leave their birth groups to breed in other groups while males may stay and breed there, inheriting the breeding position from their fathers.</p>
<p>A feature of many these species is that resident breeding males or groups of related males hold their positions for relatively long periods – longer than the age at which most females reach sexual maturity. So one explanation is that females need to leave their birth groups to find unrelated breeding partners. Males in these species don’t need to leave as immigrant females willingly mate with them.</p>
<p>A preference for male succession is widespread in many human societies and is often attributed to the need for monarchs to be battle leaders and the greater strength and fighting ability of males. </p>
<p>However, African apes are our closest living relatives and they all form groups where females leave but males remain. This suggests dispersing females and resident males may have been the ancestral norm in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21300">hominin societies</a> too. If so, it may be because females dispersed to avoid inbreeding, rather than because of differences in strength and fighting prowess between the sexes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Clutton Brock's research on meerkats is funded by the European Research Council and was previously supported by Natural Environment Research Council, UK. I am a member of Cambridge University, an affiliate of the University of Pretoria, and a Fellow of the Royal Society UK. </span></em></p>If you think relationships between male and female animals are simple, it’s time to have a rethink.Tim Clutton Brock, Professor of zoology, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1808592022-04-18T19:57:32Z2022-04-18T19:57:32ZPlant-based patties, lab-grown meat and insects: how the protein industry is innovating to meet demand<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457569/original/file-20220412-21-scscs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4808%2C3100&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-happy-boy-eating-hamburger-burger-539830786">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/australians-buy-more-dairy-and-meat-substitutes-2020-21#:%7E:text=The%20amount%20of%20dairy%20and,Bureau%20of%20Statistics%20(ABS)">As demand for alternative protein sources grows</a>, Australians are increasingly looking for options that are healthy, sustainable and ethically made. </p>
<p>At CSIRO, we have produced a “<a href="https://www.csiro.au/protein-roadmap">protein roadmap</a>” to guide investments in a diverse range of new products and ingredients. We believe plant-based patties, lab-made meat and insects are just some of the foods set to fill Australian fridges by 2030.</p>
<p>The roadmap sketches out the foundations for a future with greater choice for consumers, and better outcomes for Australian producers across all types of protein. </p>
<h2>Changing protein preferences</h2>
<p>Australia is one of the world’s largest per-capita <a href="https://www.mla.com.au/globalassets/mla-corporate/prices--markets/documents/trends--analysis/soti-report/2789-mla-state-of-industry-report-2021_d11_single.pdf">beef consumers</a>, but there has been a steady decline in consumption over the past two decades.</p>
<p>The most <a href="https://www.mla.com.au/marketing-beef-and-lamb/consumer-sentiment-research">common reason</a> for eating less red meat is cost, followed by concerns related to health, the environment, and animal welfare. </p>
<p>At the same time, meat consumption among the middle class in <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/cf68bf79-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/cf68bf79-en">countries such as China and Vietnam has been rising</a>.</p>
<p>This shift in demand is creating an opportunity for protein producers to expand and diversify.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ultra-processed-foods-are-trashing-our-health-and-the-planet-180115">Ultra-processed foods are trashing our health – and the planet</a>
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<h2>Producing plant-based protein locally</h2>
<p>The plant protein industry is still small in Australia. However, it is <a href="https://www.foodfrontier.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2021/03/Food-Frontier-2020-State-of-the-Industry.pdf">ramping up rapidly</a>.</p>
<p>The total number of plant-based protein products on grocery shelves has doubled over the past year to more than 200. <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/australians-buy-more-dairy-and-meat-substitutes-2020-21#:%7E:text=The%20amount%20of%20dairy%20and,Bureau%20of%20Statistics%20(ABS)">Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics</a> shows demand for these products has increased by about 30% in the past two years. </p>
<p>Plant-based food products are made by processing various plant ingredients (such as wholegrains, legumes, beans, nuts and oilseeds) into food products, including breads, pasta, and alternatives to meat and dairy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A bird's eye view of a plant-based patty in one hand and a cup of legumes in the other hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457557/original/file-20220412-12-mny4zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457557/original/file-20220412-12-mny4zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457557/original/file-20220412-12-mny4zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457557/original/file-20220412-12-mny4zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457557/original/file-20220412-12-mny4zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457557/original/file-20220412-12-mny4zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457557/original/file-20220412-12-mny4zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Legumes are often used to create plant-based patties.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mans-hands-holding-plant-based-non-1802315809">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Lupins, chickpeas and lentils can be turned into plant-based burgers, while protein powders can be made from faba or mung beans.</p>
<p>Most plant-based products available now are either imported or made in Australia using imported ingredients, so there is plenty of room for Australian producers to enter the industry. </p>
<h2>The story behind the steak</h2>
<p>Meat will continue to be a staple in many people’s diets for years to come. </p>
<p>When we do eat meat, Australian consumers are increasingly asking questions about where their meat came from. On this front, “digital integrity” systems can be a useful solution.</p>
<p>These systems track everything from the origin of ingredients, to nutrition, sustainable packaging, fair trade and organic certifications. They also keep a record of associated labour conditions, carbon footprint, water use, chemical use, animal welfare consideration, and impacts to biodiversity and air quality.</p>
<p>One example is made by Sydney-based firm NanoTag Technology: a unique micro-dot matrix pattern printed on the packaging of meat products which, when scanned with a pocket reader, <a href="https://www.nanotag.co/food">verifies</a> the authenticity of the product. Buyers can see the product’s pack date, batch number and factory of origin.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An array of beef cattle in a farm house." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457559/original/file-20220412-19-w3dpn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457559/original/file-20220412-19-w3dpn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457559/original/file-20220412-19-w3dpn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457559/original/file-20220412-19-w3dpn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457559/original/file-20220412-19-w3dpn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457559/original/file-20220412-19-w3dpn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457559/original/file-20220412-19-w3dpn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">We’re becoming more interested in the story behind the steak.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beefs-standing-herd-barn-they-eating-1845608137">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Seafood is also an <a href="https://www.agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20-001.pdf">important source of healthy and low-fat protein</a>. Demand is growing for local, inexpensive white-flesh fish such as barramundi and Murray cod.</p>
<p>While Australia produces 11,000 tonnes of white-flesh fish annually, it also <a href="https://ecos.csiro.au/new-everyday-supermarket-fish/">imports almost ten times</a> this amount to help meet annual demand. </p>
<p>Responding to this demand, the Australian aquaculture industry has <a href="https://ecos.csiro.au/new-everyday-supermarket-fish/">ambitions to reach 50,000 tonnes of homegrown produce</a> by 2030.</p>
<h2>Fermented foods</h2>
<p><a href="https://ecos.csiro.au/whats-brewing-precision-fermentation/">Precision fermentation</a> is another technology for creating protein-rich products and ingredients – potentially worth A$2.2 billion by 2030.</p>
<p>Traditional fermentation involves using microorganisms (such as bacteria and yeast) to create food including yoghurt, bread or tempeh. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An array of fermented foods shot from above." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457564/original/file-20220412-14-orw4hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457564/original/file-20220412-14-orw4hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457564/original/file-20220412-14-orw4hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457564/original/file-20220412-14-orw4hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457564/original/file-20220412-14-orw4hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457564/original/file-20220412-14-orw4hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457564/original/file-20220412-14-orw4hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fermentation can create nutritious plant-based milk, yogurts, tempeh and more.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/fermented-food-probiotics-kefir-kombucha-sauerkraut-1673466124">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In precision fermentation, you customise the microorganisms to create new products. The US-based <a href="https://theeverycompany.com/">Every Company</a>, uses customised microorganism strains to create a chicken-free substitute for egg white. Similarly, <a href="https://perfectday.com/">Perfect Day</a> has created a cow-free milk. </p>
<h2>Man made meats</h2>
<p>Still want to eat meat, but are concerned about animal welfare or environmental impacts? Cultivated or cell-based meat is biologically similar to the regular variety, but the animal cells are grown in a lab, not a farm. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A close up of lab grown meat production." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457566/original/file-20220412-30687-1qdbnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457566/original/file-20220412-30687-1qdbnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457566/original/file-20220412-30687-1qdbnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457566/original/file-20220412-30687-1qdbnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457566/original/file-20220412-30687-1qdbnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457566/original/file-20220412-30687-1qdbnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457566/original/file-20220412-30687-1qdbnv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An array of companies are working towards biologically identical, lab-grown meat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/meat-sample-open-disposable-plastic-cell-1317402761">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Australian company <a href="https://www.thechainsaw.com/vow-foods-cell-based-meat-seed-funding-2021-1">Vow</a> is making pork and chicken, as well as kangaroo, alpaca and water buffalo meat using cells from animals. These products are not yet commercially available, though chef Neil Perry did <a href="https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/news/vow-food-neil-perry-lab-grown-meat/">use some of them to create a menu in 2020</a>.</p>
<h2>Edible insects</h2>
<p>Edible insects, such as crickets and mealworms, have been part of cuisines around the world for millennia, including Australian First Nations Peoples. </p>
<p>Insects have a <a href="https://research.csiro.au/edibleinsects/">high nutritional value</a>, are rich in protein, omega-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamins B12, C and E.</p>
<p>Insect farming is also considered to have a low environmental footprint, and requires less land, water and energy. </p>
<p>Australian company <a href="https://circleharvest.com.au/">Circle Harvest</a> sells a range of edible insect products including pastas and chocolate brownie mixes enriched with cricket powder.</p>
<p>Protein is vital to our health. However, until now its production has placed strain on the health of most other ecosystems. CSIRO’s protein roadmap offers not only sustainability, but also more choice for consumers and opportunities for Australian producers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/emerging-tech-in-the-food-transport-and-energy-sector-can-help-counter-the-effects-of-climate-change-180126">Emerging tech in the food, transport and energy sector can help counter the effects of climate change</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180859/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Wynn works for the CSIRO, which receives funding from the Australian Government.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Colgrave is affiliated with both CSIRO, which receives funding from the Australian Government; and Edith Cowan University wherein she receives grant funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>A new ‘protein roadmap’ produced by CSIRO reveals foods set to fill fridges by 2030 as health, environmental and ethical concerns push consumers away from meat.Katherine Wynn, Lead Economist, CSIRO Futures, CSIROMichelle Colgrave, Professor of Food and Agricultural Proteomics, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1614682021-07-06T15:00:41Z2021-07-06T15:00:41ZWhy a bacterium in goat and sheep milk in southwest Nigeria poses a health risk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408379/original/file-20210625-20-gc5st.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Goat sellers in the Birnin Kudu market, Jigawa State, Nigeria </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/goat-sellers-in-the-birnin-kudu-market-news-photo/1211135767?adppopup=true">Jorge Fernández/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sheep and goats in southwest Nigeria are carrying bacteria that are resistant to a range of drugs, such as antibiotics. This is a problem because the bacterium, methicillin-resistant <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em>, poses a potential health risk to the owners as well as to the general population.</p>
<p>People can be infected with the bacterium if they come into direct contact with animals carrying it, or materials contaminated with it. This can lead to severe infections like food poisoning. </p>
<p>In addition, managing methicillin-resistant <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> has been compromised by the fact that farmers are using antibiotics indiscriminately. This has, in turn, led to a rise in drug resistance. </p>
<p>Sheep and goats are important in Nigeria as sources of meat and milk. They are also household assets. They contribute <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/132661376.pdf">about 35%</a> of the total meat consumed in Nigeria. Goat milk is also <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Factors-affecting-sheep-consumption-metropolis/dp/3640886933">consumed</a> in some parts of Nigeria, especially Borno State in the northeast.</p>
<p>One of the main diseases in sheep and goats caused by the bacterium is mastitis, which <a href="https://infonet-biovision.org/AnimalHealth/Udder-health-and-Mastitis">affects milk production</a> and weight gain. It can also <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/T0218E/T0218E04.htm">contaminate milk</a> and be harmful to humans. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/AS/AS-595-commonDiseases.pdf">Mastitis</a> is the inflammation of the udders – mammary glands of cows, sheep and goats. It may be clinical and subclinical. Subclinical means it is not severe enough to present definite or readily observable symptoms. The presence of pathogenic organisms in the milk is only <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14556701/">detectable</a> using very specific tests.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11250-020-02301-x">our study</a>, we investigated the prevalence of methicillin resistant <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> in goat and sheep milk and nasal samples in Abeokuta, southwest Nigeria. </p>
<p>Previous <a href="https://academicjournals.org/journal/AJMR/how-to-cite-article/4997B8545868">studies</a> conducted in the northern part of Nigeria showed that it was prevalent in goat and sheep milk. But no similar work had been conducted in the southern region. </p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>In total, 400 samples made up of 200 raw milk samples and 200 nasal swabs were collected from small ruminants (females only) from 10 locations in Abeokuta. Three stages were involved in the analysis of the samples. The first was the isolation and cultivation of the bacterium from the samples (nasal and milk). This was done by dispensing small volumes of the milk samples and nasal swabs in enrichment broth and then on solid media to recover the bacterium. </p>
<p>The second stage involved identifying the isolated bacterium using biochemical tests that can differentiate the organism of interest from other bacteria. After the organisms had been identified as <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em>, they were tested against two antibiotics. These were cefoxitin and oxacillin. The aim was to confirm if they were methicillin resistant or not.</p>
<p>In the third stage, the methicillin-resistant <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> isolates were tested against 10 commonly used antibiotics in the study area.<br>
From our result, the prevalence rates detected in raw milk and nasal swab were higher than previous studies in the northern part of Nigeria. This finding corroborates the fact that the methicillin-resistant <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> population is <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/nvj/article/view/191716">rising and spreading</a> among small ruminants in Nigeria. </p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>This poses a serious threat to the general wellbeing of humans. Those particularly at risk are animal professionals, butchers, veterinarians, animal handlers and slaughterhouse workers having direct contact with the animals or their products. </p>
<p>The bacteria were also resistant to the antibiotics commonly used in the study area. The isolates showed resistance to ampicillin, cloxacillin, sulphamethoxazole-trimethoprim, amoxicillin-clavulanate, ceftriaxone, cefuroxime and erythromycin but were sensitive to streptomycin, ciprofloxacin, pefloxacin and gentamicin.</p>
<p>The presence of multidrug-resistant bacteria in small ruminants reared in Abeokuta metropolis may be due to indiscriminate use of antibiotics and unhygienic practices by farmers. Antibiotics are readily available, cheap and accessible at any animal store. </p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>Mastitis caused by methicillin-resistant <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em> should be eliminated because of the severity of clinical symptoms, antibiotic resistance and the risk of contamination of milk products by toxins. The toxins can cause <a href="https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/dangers-raw-milk-unpasteurized-milk-can-pose-serious-health-risk">food poisoning</a> in humans, if contaminated and unpasteurised milk is consumed. The usual <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3153270/">symptoms</a> are nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach cramps.</p>
<p>We recommend that farmers who rear small ruminants should ensure strict hygiene. Proper housing for the animals should be in place. Also, thorough washing of hands before and after milking or feeding is advised. </p>
<p>Only pasteurised milk and milk products should be consumed. Government should enforce laws prohibiting the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in small ruminants by farmers without veterinarian prescriptions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ezekiel Omoshaba works for Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. He is affiliated with Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association</span></em></p>The presence of multi drug-resistant bacteria in goats and sheep in southwest Nigeria may be due to regular use of antibiotics and unhygienic practices by farmers.Ezekiel Omoshaba, Lecturer, Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology , Federal University of Agriculture, AbeokutaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583232021-04-23T11:18:09Z2021-04-23T11:18:09ZNigeria needs more veterinary doctors but getting them is a big challenge<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396748/original/file-20210423-23-a5gris.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Herdsmen with their cows wait for buyers at Kara Cattle Market in Lagos, Nigeria. Veterinary services are in short supply across the country.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A government official in Gombe State, north east Nigeria, recently <a href="https://www.sunnewsonline.com/commissioner-decries-dearth-of-veterinary-doctors-in-gombe/">lamented</a> the dearth of veterinary doctors in the state. He said the state had only eight veterinary doctors and around a million farm animals. But the problem is not peculiar just to Gombe. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.vcn.gov.ng/">Veterinary Council of Nigeria</a> has 9,000 registered members, but only 3,500 are actively practising veterinarians. The rest are in different professions or no longer in the country. According to the council, Nigeria requires a minimum of five veterinarians per local government area for effective containment of disease outbreaks and monitoring. With 774 local government areas, this means Nigeria requires 3,870 veterinarians to work solely at that level. There aren’t enough in active practice even for this requirement. </p>
<p>Veterinary doctors have an important role to play in agricultural production, disease prevention, wildlife conservation and the health of animals in the security sector, as well as caring for pets.</p>
<p>Having <a href="https://unaab.edu.ng/2010/09/dr-sonibare-adekayode-olanrewaju/">taught</a> veterinary medicine in Nigeria for 21 years, I have observed some of the challenges students face, and have considered ways to increase the number of qualified vets in the country. </p>
<h2>How veterinary training started in Nigeria</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://unaab.edu.ng/funaab-ocw/opencourseware/INTRODUCTION%20TO%20VETERINARY%20MEDICINE.docx#:%7E:text=In%20Nigeria%2C%20the%20first%20Veterinary,Veterinary%20Research%20Institute%20(NVRI).">first</a> veterinary education facility in Nigeria was established in 1923. It is now called the <a href="https://nvri.gov.ng/">National Veterinary Research Institute</a> and concentrates on vaccine production. Its premises also host a school training students for diplomas in animal health. This qualifies them to assist veterinarians.</p>
<p>The first batch of licensed veterinary graduates in Nigeria was produced in 1947. A report in 1949 recommended establishing a veterinary school at Ibadan but this lacked funding and at the time the country was focused on the struggle for <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/1960-sir-abubakar-tafawa-balewa-independence-day/">independence</a>. By 1954, there were only 39 veterinary surgeons on the register of the <a href="https://www.vcn.gov.ng/">Veterinary Council of Nigeria</a> and most of these were expatriates. It was not until 1967 that the next batch of locally produced veterinary graduates emerged, from the joint efforts of the <a href="https://www.ui.edu.ng/">University of Ibadan</a> and <a href="https://www.abu.edu.ng/">Ahmadu Bello University</a>, Zaria. </p>
<p>More Nigerian universities now offer veterinary medicine. There are nine of them presently. <a href="https://www.uniben.edu/">University of Benin</a> is seeking approval from the National Universities Commission to establish a veterinary school. A school is also in the works for a newly approved Federal University of Agriculture, Zuru, Kebbi State. </p>
<p>Most of these faculties can only cater for fewer than 100 students each. Their capacities differ. The older ones graduate between 70 and 100 per session while younger ones graduate between 30 and 50.</p>
<h2>Demands of studying veterinary medicine</h2>
<p>Aside from the limited training capacity available, the demands of this course place some limits on the number of graduates.</p>
<p>The first thing a veterinary student needs is a deep rooted interest, love and passion for animals. </p>
<p>The academic requirements for admission to the course are higher than for many other courses. Students need the same school leaving marks as for courses like human medicine, pharmacy and physiotherapy.</p>
<p>The veterinary student must be resilient and ready to persevere. The course is rigorous, with a high workload and a lot of reading. It takes discipline to study many animal species in detail. In my experience, about a tenth of the students at each level withdraw after failing to meet all the criteria.</p>
<p>It’s a costly course too. According to the <a href="https://www.nuc.edu.ng/contact-us/">National Universities Commission</a>, training a veterinary student costs the federal government about N950,000 per year. For the six year training programme it’s a total cost to government of N5,700,000 (about US$15,000) for each vet student. While tuition is free in federal universities offering vet studies, students pay for their upkeep and costs like accommodation and field trips. This is difficult for some students to pay.</p>
<p>Government funding is crucial if the number of veterinary graduates is to increase. The huge financial implication may be the reason no university run by a state government has ventured into training veterinary students.</p>
<p>Full scholarships and loans from government and the private sector would help. Automatic offers of employment for top graduates would also encourage students.</p>
<h2>Opportunities in Nigeria</h2>
<p>There’s a wide range of opportunities for work in veterinary science in Nigeria. Much of this work is of national importance, in that it has a bearing on food security, economic development and integrated healthcare.</p>
<p>The first is animal production. Recent <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/ca5464en/ca5464en.pdf">estimates</a> indicate that Nigeria has 18.4 million cattle, 43.4 million sheep, 76 million goats and 180 million birds (poultry). </p>
<p>Clinics for small animals like dogs and cats are another option, as is wildlife conservation.</p>
<p>The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has a quarantine unit, where animals coming through air and land borders are checked to prevent the introduction of disease. </p>
<p>State ministries of agriculture also have to manage, treat, contain and report on animal diseases.</p>
<p>Some veterinarians work on teams researching human diseases, especially where they involve pathogens of animal origin.</p>
<p>Security agencies such as the police, army and <a href="https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.nigeria_security_and_civil_defence_corps_%28nscdc%29.3453af5f8bf6922e9f0b0153c659cabb.html">Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps</a> need vets to look after dogs used in crime detection, crowd control and rescue operations, and horses used in ceremonial parades. </p>
<p>Veterinary scientists also work in institutions like the <a href="https://nvri.gov.ng/">National Veterinary Research Institute</a> to identify disease causing agents and produce vaccines. Another is the <a href="https://napri.gov.ng/">National Animal Production Research Institute</a>.</p>
<p>Drug safety and food safety are additional areas of work. </p>
<h2>Veterinary doctors are resilient</h2>
<p>Veterinary graduates are trained to work under pressure, giving them attributes that are in demand in many spheres of the economy. Recently <a href="https://business.vanderbilt.edu/news/2021/04/07/how-i-got-the-job-commercial-strategy-analyst-american-airlines/">one of our students</a> became a commercial airline analyst, crediting his training with sharpening his business acumen. </p>
<p>While vets are in high demand across sectors, it would be more beneficial to the country if they stayed in the profession.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158323/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adekayode Olanrewaju Sonibare does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nigeria needs more veterinary doctors to improve agricultural production, disease prevention, wildlife conservation and the health of animals in the security sectorAdekayode Olanrewaju Sonibare, Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Federal University of Agriculture, AbeokutaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1215282019-08-27T12:59:34Z2019-08-27T12:59:34ZWhat is the smallest animal ever?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289135/original/file-20190822-170927-hfk4mc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The world's smallest frog can fit on a dime.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paratype_of_Paedophryne_amauensis_(LSUMZ_95004).png">E.N. Rittmeyer et al. (2012)</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
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<blockquote>
<p><strong>What is the smallest animal ever? – Peter, age 9, Brookline, Massachusetts</strong></p>
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<p>The biggest animal in the world is easy to see, if you know where to look. Living in every ocean except the Arctic, the blue whale is the <a href="https://www.natgeokids.com/nz/discover/animals/sea-life/10-blue-whale-facts/">largest animal on Earth</a> — weighing as much as 200 tons with a heartbeat that can be heard up to two miles away.</p>
<p>But the smallest animal in the world? Even if you knew where to look, could you see it? To track down the tiniest creature, scientists had to first decide what they were looking for and then, where they might find it. The first question – “What is an animal?” – is something that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/news060130-4">scientists have debated</a> for centuries.</p>
<p>I am an <a href="https://cvhs.okstate.edu/veterinary-medical-hospital/small-animal/avian-exotics-and-zoo-medicine/di-girolamo-publications.html">exotic animal veterinarian</a> especially fascinated by these types of questions.</p>
<h2>What is an animal?</h2>
<p>In the language of science, an animal is an organism made of multiple cells. Cells are the building blocks of all living things – a human body, for example, is made up of trillions of cells. Some organisms, like bacteria, are made of just one cell. They are not considered animals. </p>
<p>The simplest single-celled creatures – including bacteria – are called prokaryotes. They don’t contain a nucleus, the feature that acts like the main control center for a cell. More complex cells have an enclosed nucleus. They are called eukaryotes. Anything from an earthworm to a zebra or you are all eukaryotes and all are considered animals.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289168/original/file-20190823-170910-1wt2b01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289168/original/file-20190823-170910-1wt2b01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289168/original/file-20190823-170910-1wt2b01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289168/original/file-20190823-170910-1wt2b01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289168/original/file-20190823-170910-1wt2b01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289168/original/file-20190823-170910-1wt2b01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289168/original/file-20190823-170910-1wt2b01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The blue whale is the largest animal in the world. But what is the smallest?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17942391">NOAA Photo Library</a></span>
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<h2>If it can’t be seen, does that count?</h2>
<p>Based on this definition, an animal can be something so small that it’s not possible to see without a microscope. This is definitely not something that you would probably call an “animal.” A recent discovery is an organism that is invisible to the eye, a parasitic jellyfish called Myxozoa. They are very small and reaching barely 20 micrometers. Stretched out end to end, it would take more than 1,000 of these creatures to equal 1 inch.</p>
<p>Probably the smallest of these parasitic jellyfish is <em>Myxobolus shekel</em>, which <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4900514/">is no more than 8.5 micrometers when fully grown</a>.</p>
<p>This species was described in 2011, so is pretty new. So is the decision that Myxozoa are related to jellyfish, which scientists agreed on in 2015. The discovery of these types of jellyfish <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27330981">occur once in a while</a>, so it is possible that a new and even smaller animal will be discovered in the future.</p>
<h2>The process of elimination</h2>
<p>Let’s assume that you’re looking for the smallest “animal” that is visible to the human eye. Some invertebrates, or animals without a backbone, and other smaller organisms are not visible to the human eye. What is left are vertebrates, animals with backbones that include mammals such as a dog, a whale or you, reptiles such as snakes or crocodiles, birds, fishes and amphibians. <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians/">Most amphibians</a>, like frogs, are born in water and breathe with gills until they mature, when they develop lungs and an ability to live on land. </p>
<p>In this group of animals, it is the amphibians that win the prize for the smallest animal known, for the moment.</p>
<p>Scientists traveled to New Guinea, the second largest island in the world, to study the the island’s wildlife. This is where they found the smallest known type of frog called <em>Paedophryne amauensis</em>. The body length of an average adult is reported at less than 8 mm, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/1/120111-smallest-frogs-vertebrates-new-species-science-animals/">about the size of a pea</a>. When it was discovered in 2009, it was immediately awarded the title of “<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0029797">world’s smallest vertebrate</a>.”</p>
<p>The smallest animal is a question that scientists have debated for many years. Don’t worry. The nature of science means the answers will keep changing as researchers make new discoveries. Maybe a smaller vertebrate will be discovered in a quiet forest, on an exotic island, at the bottom of a canyon or in the dark abyss of the ocean. Scientists will keep looking.</p>
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<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>.</em>
<em>Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121528/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola Di Girolamo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scientists have identified the world’s smallest animal – for now. It could be possible smaller creatures exist that have not yet been discovered.Nicola Di Girolamo, Associate Professor of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Oklahoma State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/912882018-02-07T00:03:26Z2018-02-07T00:03:26ZHow bombardier beetles survive being eaten – and other amazing animal defence mechanisms<p>In Disney’s film version of Pinnochio, the boy-puppet rescues his creator Geppetto by lighting a fire inside Monstro the whale, who has swallowed them both. The fire causes the whale to sneeze, freeing Pinnochio and Geppetto from their gastric prison.</p>
<p>Before you dismiss this getaway as incredible fantasy, consider that new research shows that a kind of fire in the belly can actually be an effective strategy for escaping predators in the real world. In fact, the animal kingdom is full of amazing examples of unusual defence mechanisms that help small creatures avoid a nasty fate.</p>
<p>In a new paper <a href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0647">in Biology Letters</a>, scientists at Kobe University in Japan describe how bombardier beetles can survive being eaten by a toad by releasing a hot chemical spray that makes the hungry amphibian vomit.</p>
<p>Bombardier beetles are so-named because, when threatened, they emit a boiling, irritating substance from their backsides <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/422599.stm">with remarkable accuracy</a>, to deter potential predators. They produce the caustic mixture by <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/05/absurd-creature-of-the-week-bombardier-beetle/">combining hydrogen peroxide, hydroquinones and chemical catalysts</a> in a specially reinforced chamber at the base of their abdomen, which shields the beetle’s own organs from the resulting explosive reaction.</p>
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<p><a href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0647">The Japanese researchers</a> fed two different species of bombardier beetles to captive toads. They were then able to confirm that the beetles used their weapon inside the toads by listening carefully for the explosive pop that accompanies each discharge. </p>
<p>Toads are ambush predators, quite used to swallowing first and asking questions later. When they start to feel a dose of diner’s remorse, they can literally turn <a href="https://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/how-to-heave-your-guts/">their stomachs inside out and scrape out the contents</a>, rather than suffering meekly from indigestion. Many of the toads in this experiment did just that, disgorging the beetles up to 107 minutes after ingestion. Remarkably, the ejected beetles all survived.</p>
<p>In a further experiment, the researchers poked beetles with forceps to deplete their spray reserves. Compared to those with full tanks of fuel, the exhausted beetles were much less likely to be ejected. This showed that it really was their chemical arsenals that saved them, rather than just their taste or behaviour in the gut.</p>
<figure> <img src="https://media.giphy.com/media/26DN4S3rQgsgvzEY0/giphy.gif"><figcaption>“I guess I’ll die another day.” Sugiura & Sato, Kobe University</figcaption></figure>
<p>The bombardier beetle is of course not the only animal escape artist. The diverse getaway tactics of animals are a testament to the fascinating creativity of evolution. Subject to millions of years of abuse and exploitation by predators, natural selection has shaped an array of ingenious strategies for cheating death in the face of would-be devourers.</p>
<h2>Animal Houdinis</h2>
<p>Some examples are probably familiar to most people. For instance, many lizards drop their tails to distract a predator or <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/59/8/728/256547">escape from its venom</a>. But others are more exotic. Sea cucumbers don’t have tails so they <a href="http://echinoblog.blogspot.ca/2012/01/sea-cucumber-evisceration-defense.html">eject and regenerate their internal organs instead</a>. Loud sounds (<a href="http://thatslifesci.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/2016-12-26-How-Pistol-Shrimp-Kill-With-Bubbles-AStrauss/">such as the “gunshots” of snapping shrimp</a>) and bright colours (as on <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/ebook.php?isbn=9780520952461">banded wing grasshoppers</a>) are also effective means of <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5742/afd010a4e1b889d1097f28f6f5741f10d33e.pdf">startling predators</a>. Mantid insects unite movement, sound and colour in an elaborate display that can stop an attack or at least give them a chance to escape.</p>
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<p>Some animals fight back, such as the frogs that can <a href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/4/355">erect sharp bony splinters</a> from their claws that <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13991-horror-frog-breaks-own-bones-to-produce-claws/">pierce their own skin</a>, like X-Men’s Wolverine. Other animals, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098%252Frspb.2001.1708">the mimic octopus</a>, prefer to pretend to be being dangerous, <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/accumulating-glitches/the_mimic_octopus_master_of">adopting the appearance of more deadly prey</a> when threatened.</p>
<p>The stunning variety of defensive mechanisms would be impressive even if we only counted variations of chemical warfare, similar to the bombardier beetle’s steam treatment. There are the defensive toxins in <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/group/pufferfish/">pufferfish</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150422-the-worlds-most-poisonous-animal">poison arrow frogs</a>, the nauseating <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12717282-900-science-the-seven-deadly-smells-of-a-skunk/">odours of skunks</a>, the charmingly named but actually revolting <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150623-millipedes-use-chemical-weapons">repugnatorial glands of some millipedes</a>, and the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/vomit-bird-throws-defense-predators-eurasian-roller-nestlings-emit-foul-smelling-fluid-protection-article-1.1037423">projectile vomiting</a> and <a href="https://wildfowl.wwt.org.uk/index.php/wildfowl/article/view/562">faecal egg decorating</a> of some birds.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205061/original/file-20180206-14107-1lzimnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205061/original/file-20180206-14107-1lzimnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205061/original/file-20180206-14107-1lzimnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205061/original/file-20180206-14107-1lzimnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205061/original/file-20180206-14107-1lzimnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205061/original/file-20180206-14107-1lzimnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205061/original/file-20180206-14107-1lzimnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">I wouldn’t eat me if I were you.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/strawberry-poison-dart-frog-dendrobates-pumilio-110478725?src=wsqFvxedepyW5_6CPNI-NQ-1-3">Maiquez/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Why should nature have created such an impressive array of defensive tactics? One possible explanation can be summarised as the <a href="http://evosophos.com/life-dinner-principle/">life-dinner principle</a>, articulated by biologists <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/205/1161/489">Richard Dawkins and John Krebs in the late 1970s</a>. The argument is that predator and prey often face asymmetrical selection pressures, meaning that the stakes are different for the two competitors. If a predator fails to capture its target, it loses dinner, but if the prey fails to escape, it loses its life. Because the stakes are greater for prey, we shouldn’t be surprised they have developed so many impressive defences.</p>
<p>Understanding nature’s tremendous capacity to adapt should make us be careful. Humans interact with other organisms all the time, and usually we’re the predators. When we try to take action against other creatures to stop them spreading disease or eating crops, we should be mindful that evolutionary innovation can produce remarkable adaptations. For example, our widespread use of <a href="https://www.myjoyonline.com/lifestyle/2018/february-3rd/high-levels-of-antibiotic-resistance-found-worldwide-who.php">antibiotics</a> and <a href="https://guardian.ng/features/malaria-cases-rise-as-insecticide-resistance-spreads/">pesticides</a> has spurred the evolution of organisms that are resistant to these methods.</p>
<p>Only by having a healthy respect for the relentless power of evolution can we hope to generate sustainable solutions to these kinds of problems. If we grow complacent and inattentive, we may some day soon find ourselves facing newly evasive diseases and pests, sputtering to breathe and dyspeptic amid all the fire and smoke in our bellies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91288/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luc Bussiere does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Meet the brawny bug with a concoction so caustic it’ll make a toad vomit.Luc Bussiere, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/820292017-08-14T16:26:02Z2017-08-14T16:26:02ZConservation versus profit: South Africa’s ‘unique’ game offer a sobering lesson<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181647/original/file-20170810-27691-nmn95l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The price of rare coloured animals like the Golden Wildebeest have fluctuated wildly.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s wildlife is thriving. One of the reasons for this is that landowners can profit from animals living on their land. Wildlife can be hunted for meat and trophies as well as being used non-consumptively for ecotourism. Thousands of former cattle ranches are now profitable game farms, hunting reserves and ecotourism lodges making South Africa a conservation <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/2041-7136-2-18">success story.</a></p>
<p>But mixing profit and conservation is not simple. For example, a wildlife ranch generating profit from hunters must have animals that clients wish to hunt while a tourist lodge needs to stock species that are attractive and visible to those enjoying recreational game drives. Successful conservation requires a balanced, long-term approach but sometimes the goals of pursuing profit and long term conservation don’t always coincide.</p>
<p>One example of this is the market for “colour variants” - unusually coloured forms of particular species caused by rare mutations. Naturally occurring mutations causing colour variations happen <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004892">in many animals</a>. Rare colour variants of hunted African species have been known for a long time. They include black and white varieties of impala, golden wildebeest and pure white varieties of springbok. Trophy hunters seeking novelty might pay more to hunt these unusually coloured individuals. </p>
<p>The extraordinary spike, and then spectacular collapse, in the prices that these mutant colour forms sold for in the game auctions of South Africa over the past decade or so provides a timely reminder that profit does not always sit comfortably with conservation. Using resources on colour variant animals will divert from the conservation of other wildlife and can be detrimental.</p>
<h2>The history</h2>
<p>Over the past decade or so, colour variants of a number of species including wildebeest, impala, zebra, blesbok, gemsbok and springbok began to be intensively bred by some game farmers, ultimately for the trophy hunting market.</p>
<p>In 2012, these rare varieties were estimated to represent <a href="http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/bottomline/colour-variant-game-naturally-profitable/">only 1%</a> of game in the country. Scarcity and the thought that hunters would pay handsomely for novel trophies led to a confidence that there would be considerable future payoffs. As a result, prices escalated. Normal impala could be bought for <a href="http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/bottomline/colour-variant-game-naturally-profitable/">R1400</a>, whereas black impala fetched <a href="http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/bottomline/colour-variant-game-naturally-profitable/">R600 000</a>. These colour variants were not yet being hunted – owners were focused on breeding lines and increasing numbers.</p>
<p>But over the next 2 years things changed. By 2014 rare game accounted for <a href="http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/opinion/by-invitation/the-future-of-game-ranching/">16% of turnover</a> at game auctions with the average price for white impala rams reaching <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/2017-01-26-colour-game-is-over/">R8.2million</a>. </p>
<p>As prices continued to rise, <a href="http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/agri-news/south-africa/colour-variant-game-prices-sour-amidst-controversy/">critics continued</a> to point out problems. Many believed it was putting profit before conservation. </p>
<p>They pointed out:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the dangers inherent in intensively breeding animals from limited genetic stock, leading to the problems associated with inbreeding, including reduced viability and fertility; </p></li>
<li><p>of offering captive bred animals to hunters, which many believe to be unethical and not “fair chase”;</p></li>
<li><p>of diverting resources from other conservation as game farms focus on colour variant animals to the detriment of other wildlife.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Despite naysayers, breeders bred and sold animals that commanded high prices throughout 2015. But talk of a bubble – when the price of an asset is based on past performance rather than actual value – was rife. Once potential buyers realise the asset is overvalued no one wants to buy it and prices collapse. </p>
<p>This is exactly what happened. At the beginning of 2016 prices started to fall and the devaluation continued spectacularly. Black impala rams now fetch perhaps <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/2017-01-26-colour-game-is-over/">less than R10,000</a> (1.7% of 2012 price) and white impala have dropped to <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/2017-01-26-colour-game-is-over/">R48,000</a> (0.5% of their 2014 peak value).</p>
<p>The problem seems to have been that demand didn’t exist on the scale imagined. Hunters were simply not enthused about adding these new colour variants to their trophy rooms. As a result, breeders were only selling to other breeders and to game farmers, many of whom went on to become breeders themselves, exacerbating <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/2017-01-26-colour-game-is-over/">the problem</a>. </p>
<h2>The problem with the profit motive</h2>
<p>As one bubble bursts another seems to be inflating rapidly.</p>
<p>Advertisements for unusual colour variant game can still be seen in game ranching publications. But more apparent in the last two years have been captive-bred buffalo, sable and roan. They are normally coloured, but many have massive horns, a trait that is being bred for, and made even larger, by specialised game breeders. These animals are now regarded as the “fashionable” high-value game species and, as with colour variants, their prices are soaring. A buffalo bull went under the hammer for <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/features/2017-01-26-colour-game-is-over/">R168 million</a> in 2016. </p>
<p>Inflated prices and controversy over hunting – especially following the killing of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34116488">Cecil of Lion in Zimbabwe</a> – make “greedy” wildlife ranchers obvious targets for those who oppose the use of wildlife for hunting. </p>
<p>But the profit-conservation balance isn’t necessarily any better in non-consumptive models. For example, baiting popular dive sites for sharks, crowding waterholes with cars or pushing boats closer to bird colonies are but a few of the sharp ecotourism practices driven mainly by greed. </p>
<h2>The system works, for now</h2>
<p>For all the <a href="http://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/abstract/S0169-5347(15)00246-3">faults of ecotourism</a> and wildlife ranching in South Africa, the truth is that allowing wildlife to pay its way does appear, at the moment, <a href="http://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/abstract/S0169-5347(15)00274-8">to be working for conservation</a>. </p>
<p>Conservation necessarily involves money and finding ways for humans and wildlife to live together. In many places, making money from wildlife through hunting and tourism satisfies both needs. </p>
<p>But it seems inevitable that some practitioners of “it pays it stays” will attempt to make wildlife pay more than its rent. The colour variant bubble is perhaps a timely lesson that models to conserve nature must also account for the greed in human nature.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Hart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rare colour variants of hunted African species have been known for a long time. Trophy hunters seeking novelty might pay more to hunt these unusually coloured animals.Adam Hart, Professor of Science Communication, University of GloucestershireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/816752017-07-31T19:53:17Z2017-07-31T19:53:17ZHow to know what you’re getting when you buy free-range eggs<p>Last week, egg producer Snowdale Holdings was penalised A$1 million for <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/egg-producer-penalised-750000-for-misleading-free-range-claims">falsely labelling their eggs as free-range</a>. Snowdale, one of the biggest producers in the Australian market, owns brands including Eggs by Ellah, Swan Valley Free Range, and Wanneroo Free Range. </p>
<p>Given the significantly higher prices generally charged for free-range eggs, you could be forgiven for having doubts over what you’re getting in the supermarket. Even when egg cartons are legally accurate, the government definition of “free range” might not mean what you think it does. </p>
<p>But you don’t need to shop blind: there are a range of resources that can help you find egg producers that follow best-practise standards, avoid farming practices that concern you and understand what government guidelines really mean.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-comes-first-the-free-range-chicken-or-the-free-range-egg-77869">What comes first: the free-range chicken or the free-range egg?</a>
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<h2>What’s in an egg label?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927936.2017.1310986">Previous research</a> has shown that people buy free-range eggs for a range of reasons, including taste and quality, as well as concern for animal welfare.</p>
<p>But unlike other labels such as nutritional information panels or best-before dates, the “free-range” claim is not regulated by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). In fact, no claims about production methods are subject to this kind of regulation. <a href="http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/about/whatwedo/Pages/default.aspx">Food labelling regulation</a> by FSANZ is about what a food contains, rather than how it is produced.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180286/original/file-20170731-9675-1g1ffk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180286/original/file-20170731-9675-1g1ffk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180286/original/file-20170731-9675-1g1ffk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180286/original/file-20170731-9675-1g1ffk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180286/original/file-20170731-9675-1g1ffk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180286/original/file-20170731-9675-1g1ffk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180286/original/file-20170731-9675-1g1ffk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180286/original/file-20170731-9675-1g1ffk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Eggs by Ellah, owned by Snowdale Holdings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/27304953553/in/photolist-bnL9Hg-4BCNfM-4BH6bU-HAR2pg-bsnZg6">Alpha/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>However, there is an <a href="http://consumerlaw.gov.au/communiques/meeting-8-2/">Australian definition of “free-range”</a>, created in March 2016 under Australian consumer law. Essentially, it means that the chickens have “meaningful and regular access to the outdoors” and that outdoor stocking densities are no more than 10,000 birds per hectare.</p>
<p>This has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/free-range-egg-labelling-scrambles-the-message-for-consumers-57060">hotly debated</a>, with <a href="https://www.rspca.org.au/free-range-standards">animal welfare</a> and <a href="https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/meat-fish-and-eggs/eggs/articles/free-range-eggs">consumer groups</a> arguing that this is not what most people would consider free-range, while producer groups have <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-03-31/free-range-egg-definition-chickens-welcomed/7286772">supported the standard</a>. </p>
<p>The new regulations also requires producers to “prominently disclose” the outdoor stocking density, and we are now starting to see that on packaging.</p>
<h2>What does free-range really mean?</h2>
<p>In practice, stocking chooks at 10,000 per hectare and giving them regular access to the outdoors, might not result in animals that are especially free (or “cruelty-free” – another claim showing up on an increasing number of egg cartons).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/free-range-egg-labelling-scrambles-the-message-for-consumers-57060">Free-range egg labelling scrambles the message for consumers</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>For a start, CSIRO has published a <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/book/3451">code of practice for animal welfare</a> that recommends farmers should have no more than 1,500 birds per hectare. If you want to buy from producers that meet that standard, the consumer group Choice has an app called <a href="https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/meat-fish-and-eggs/eggs/articles/australiawide-hunt-for-free-range-eggs-with-new-cluckar-050417">CluckAR</a> that can scan egg cartons in the store and give immediate feedback on the brand’s farming conditions. </p>
<p>Choice also provides a table of <a href="https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/meat-fish-and-eggs/eggs/articles/what-free-range-eggs-meet-the-model-code">free-range egg producers</a>. Reading that table – and from my own discussions with Australian egg producers – it’s clear that price is not a totally reliable indicator of stocking density. </p>
<p>However, stocking density is only one factor in how hens are treated. Some independent certifications have more stringent guidelines. The <a href="https://austorganic.com/australian-certified-organic-standard2/">Australian Certified Organic Standard</a>, as well as specifying a maximum of 1,500 birds per hectare for set stocking systems and 2,500 for rotational systems, also prohibits practices like withholding feed and water to induce moulting. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180290/original/file-20170731-23754-13itcfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180290/original/file-20170731-23754-13itcfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/180290/original/file-20170731-23754-13itcfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180290/original/file-20170731-23754-13itcfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180290/original/file-20170731-23754-13itcfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=278&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180290/original/file-20170731-23754-13itcfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180290/original/file-20170731-23754-13itcfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/180290/original/file-20170731-23754-13itcfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Australian Organic certification indicates a lower stocking density, and more stringent cruelty-free practises, than the government definition of ‘free range’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australian Certified Organic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hens naturally moult in autumn, when they <a href="https://oup.silverchair-cdn.com/oup/backfile/Content_public/Journal/ps/82/6/10.1093/ps/82.6.971/2/poultrysci82-0971.pdf?Expires=1501557664&Signature=XWj3ZY9y27C78h8vWB3fExx9eKpnv5wQ2APmms8qWIIGZ5aAjxCUYxlY6v4NqpoX9%7EskR9G0a8ACxWSqj6BDiFB8MOg7l8ou9Ln9-VRsHQfyXaEwX8hn1ZBCWTXg4h1IdDcNmFGilI38T0boN4LPdLa2Tf%7EOWoNDepsTi5qs4sU2vpr9FCY0EQTESiV4I74vXM2omUpC02vrK-uBT3rCWFhoxyx8rgAUdN3TMhAhgfHWk%7EctbzqsSoE5lVEd8lOqk76-2C0Zo6HCl81i-d-6-eLTz8Kwc%7E7RBLE15FGCk3XS1W3--n8q46nEozJ9IdJ8wLXbKTcMzgSUHqRvjaF5jQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIUCZBIA4LVPAVW3Q">lose significant body weight and stop laying eggs</a> while their reproductive tract rejuvenates. For greater control over when hens produce eggs, as well as extending their hens’ laying lives, farmers can induce moulting by <a href="https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/induced-molting-of-commercial-layers">reducing their feed, or withholding food altogether for certain periods</a>. Although heavily regulated at the state level in Australia (hens may not go without food entirely for <a href="http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/animal-health-and-welfare/animal-welfare/animal-welfare-legislation/victorian-codes-of-practice-for-animal-welfare/code-of-accepted-farming-practice-for-the-welfare-of-poultry">more than 24 hours</a>), it is <a href="http://kb.rspca.org.au/RSPCA-Policy-B4-Farm-animal-husbandry-and-management_167.html">considered cruel by animal welfare groups</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly <a href="http://www.humanechoice.com.au/certified_humane_choice_standards">Humane Choice</a> recommends a maximum of 1,500 birds per hectare. And unlike the government definition of free-range, which calls for “meaningful and regular” access to the outside, Humane Choice standards specify that hens can “forage on the land, move untethered and uncaged”. </p>
<p>Of course, it is important to note that free-range farms are not free of animal welfare issues, such as <a href="http://kb.rspca.org.au/how-can-feather-pecking-be-managed-in-non-cage-layer-hen-systems_570.html">feather pecking</a>, where hens pull out the feathers of other birds. There are further challenges is managing exposure to weather or predators to consider. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-12-16/caged-free-range-egg-industry/8126400">Caged-egg producers argue</a> that consumers should be able to choose from a range of production methods.</p>
<p>However, if animal welfare, sustainability, and labelling are things that you are concerned about, then do your own research and identify the products that align with your values. Don’t rely on a label to tell you what is ethical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81675/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Bray's salary is partly funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP130100419) which includes contributions from industry partners Coles Group Ltd, Elders Limited, Richard Gunner’s Fine Meats Pty Ltd, and the South Australian Research and Development Institute. She is currently undertaking consultancy work for Animal Health Australia. She received scholarships from the Pig Research and Development Corporation (now Australian Pork Limited) between 1991 and 1997. The University of Adelaide is a partner in the Animal Welfare Science Centre.</span></em></p>After Snowdale Holdings was penalised A$1 million for lying about their eggs being free-range, here are some tips on getting what you pay for in the supermarket.Heather Bray, Senior Research Associate, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/809622017-07-23T20:09:57Z2017-07-23T20:09:57ZHugs, drugs and choices: helping traumatised animals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179125/original/file-20170721-30878-4swma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Interspecies relationships can help traumatised animals form healthy attachments.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sugarshine animal sactuary</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rosie, like a real-life <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112431/">Babe</a>, ran away from an organic piggery when she was only a few days old. She was found wandering in a car park, highly agitated, by a family who took her home and made her their live-in pet. However, after three months they could no longer keep her. </p>
<p>She was relocated to the <a href="http://sugarshinefarm.com.au/">Sugarshine animal sanctuary</a>, outside Lismore in New South Wales. Kelly Nelder, Sugarshine’s founder and a mental health nurse, described her as “highly strung” and “needy”. It’s not surprising that Rosie, after the loss of two primary care attachments, was unable to bond with the other pigs; she was traumatised.</p>
<p>I met Rosie when I visited Sugarshine, investigating the similarities between human and animal trauma. I spent 20 years as a clinical and forensic psychologist, but as an undergraduate I studied zoology. </p>
<p>My zoology lecturers told us not to anthropomorphise – that is, not to project human qualities, intentions and emotions onto the animals we studied. But now there is a growing recognition of animals’ inner life and their experience of psychopathology, including trauma. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IbNNwIZUsDo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>At Sugarshine, traumatised animals are given freedom to find solitude or company as they wish. Interspecies relationships are encouraged, like a baby goat being cared for by a male adult pig, or a rooster who sleeps alongside a goat.</p>
<p>Rosie has been at Sugarshine for a few months now and is more settled, roaming its gullies, farmyards and shelters, although according to Kelly she’s still anxious. She prefers the company of the bobby calves, wedging herself between them as they lie on the ground, getting skin-to-skin contact, falling asleep, and beginning the reattachment process.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179126/original/file-20170721-3327-11petis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179126/original/file-20170721-3327-11petis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179126/original/file-20170721-3327-11petis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179126/original/file-20170721-3327-11petis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179126/original/file-20170721-3327-11petis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179126/original/file-20170721-3327-11petis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179126/original/file-20170721-3327-11petis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179126/original/file-20170721-3327-11petis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rosie the anxious pig likes to sleep with bobby calves at Sugarshine animal sanctuary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sugarshine animal sanctuary</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Understanding trauma in animals</h2>
<p>I first made the connection between human and animal trauma on a visit to <a href="http://possumwood.com.au/">Possumwood Wildlife</a>, a centre outside Canberra that rehabilitates injured kangaroos and abandoned joeys, wallabies and wombats. There I met its founders, economics professor Steve Garlick and his partner Dr Rosemary Austen, a GP. </p>
<p>When joeys were first brought into their care, Steve told me, they were “inconsolable” and “dying in our arms”, even while physically unharmed, with food and shelter available to them.</p>
<p>But this response made sense once they recognised the joey’s symptoms as reminiscent of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277781472_Posttraumatic_Stress_Disorder">post-traumatic stress disorder in humans</a>: intrusive symptoms, avoidant behaviour, disturbed emotional states, heightened anxiety and hypervigilance.</p>
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<p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/uCllBqphj7R0k"></a></p>
<p>Researchers at the University of Western Australia have developed non-invasive means for measuring stress and mood in animals and are now working with sheep farmers to <a href="https://phys.org/news/2017-07-stress-testhow-scientists-animals.htm">improve the well-being of their animals</a>. PTSD has been identified in <a href="https://youtu.be/1JB1XCbBJQs">elephants</a>, <a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/05/animals-can-get-ptsd-too.html?utm_source=eml&utm_medium=e1&utm_campaign=sharebutton-t">dogs, chimpanzees and baboons</a>, for example.</p>
<h2>Safe, calm and caring</h2>
<p>To rehabilitate from trauma, humans and animals need to feel safe and away from cues that trigger the individual’s threat response, deactivating the sympathetic nervous system (the fight-flight response). They also need a means of self-soothing, or to gain soothing from another, activating the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest, digest and calm response). </p>
<p>Progress, from then on, requires the development of a secure relationship with at least one other accepting and caring person or animal. Often, this “other” is someone new. In mammals, including us, this activates our <a href="http://www.compassionatemind.org.au/resources/ewExternalFiles/Introducing-Compassion-Focused-Therapy-Paul-Gilbert.pdf">affiliative system</a>: our strong desire for close interpersonal relationships for safety, soothing and stability. We enter a calmer, receptive state of being so that the reattachment process can begin.</p>
<p>Possumwood uses <a href="http://www.awrc.org.au/uploads/5/8/6/6/5866843/ptsd_in_kangaroos_garlick_and_austen_paper_2014_2.pdf">three stages</a> for trauma rehabilitation. Young animals are first kept in a dark, quiet environment indoors to reduce noises or sounds that might trigger their fight-flight response. Here they have the opportunity to develop new kin friendships of their own choosing. </p>
<p>Sedatives (Diazepam and Fluphenazine) are judiciously used in the early stages. Then, the principal carer spends as much time as possible feeding and caressing them to build a new bond. </p>
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<p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/9xfWpGPKs3BIs"></a></p>
<p>Kangaroos are social animals, unable to survive in the wild unless part of a mob. So joeys are moved next to a large garage, and then finally to an outdoor yard, gradually being exposed to more kangaroos and creating social bonds. Once a mob grows to 30 or so healthy animals, they are released into the wild together.</p>
<h2>The fundamentals are the same</h2>
<p>The similarity between animal and human trauma is not surprising. Mammalian brains (birds also appear to experience trauma) share the principal architecture involved in experiencing <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181836/">trauma</a>. The primates, and certainly humans, have a greater capacity for cognitive reflection, which in my clinical experience can be both a help and a hindrance.</p>
<p>My observations of trauma rehabilitation at Sugarshine and Possumwood emphasises the universal fundamentals:</p>
<ul>
<li>A sense of agency (freedom and control over their choices)</li>
<li>To feel safe</li>
<li>To develop a trusting, caring bond with at least one other creature</li>
<li>Reintegration into the community at the trauma sufferer’s own discretion. </li>
</ul>
<p>For those experiencing social isolation and shame around their trauma – such as returned soldiers or the victims of domestic violence – these principles could not be more pertinent. And for our non-human cousins, like Rosie, we would do well to remember that they do feel, and they do hurt.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David John Roland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Animals have complex experiences of trauma. Treating them is very similar to dealing with humans, requiring compassion, calm and common sense.David John Roland, Honorary Associate with the School of Medicine, University of Sydney, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/810612017-07-17T23:10:08Z2017-07-17T23:10:08ZHow changing your diet could save animals from extinction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178513/original/file-20170717-6069-118ptx8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3329%2C2562&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly one-third of tropical animal species face extinction if humans do not curb our growing appetites for beef, pork and other land-intensive meats. The Panamanian golden frog bred by the Vancouver Aquarium in this 2014 file photo may be extinct in its natural habitat.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.cpimages.com/fotoweb/cpimages_details.pop.fwx?position=4&archiveType=ImageFolder&sorting=ModifiedTimeAsc&search=golden%20and%20frog&fileId=7ED4E565C8CEED275AEAE4A023E6F0DBFE75CC55B6586039AFA3A4A9FE951D3F22B34ACC50499F0099000C676EF56B79FD8133928F397B4233BD2F0B4AD858FA1638DDC87EBA9DB8E94B0839D79C227DF75A92B14A2B5F1A1225BCBD55DF59F06EB5BD7C5D2616EF6A9A1C79CADDD85732C9D97DC19FAC898908539CF52E943D">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Transforming large swaths of the tropics into farmland could render almost one-third of wildlife there extinct, new research suggests. </p>
<p>From the Amazon rain forests to the Zambezi floodplains, intensive <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0234-3.epdf?author_access_token=b6E1O0fG6Z2pt7i17O5LcdRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0Pk8s5ohTQBT5s50rsawiGLYGm5dBnXDBv1BU9t-BbojU0HQHmSIi7-KmQMAcQb1FgkSHgkdZLVFDTFxUt1byLe-6By_qDh-GymAFfpKHOMSA%3D%3D">monoculture farming could have a severe adverse impact on wildlife</a> around the world. </p>
<p>Wildlife would disappear most dramatically in the remaining forests and grasslands of Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The greatest species loss would occur in the Peruvian Amazon basin where as many as 317 species could vanish as a result of agricultural development. </p>
<p>As a doctoral researcher at Humboldt University Berlin, I studied human food consumption, land use and how they affect wildlife. Our research was published July 17 in Nature Ecology and Evolution.</p>
<p>While human population has doubled since 1970, the number of <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/lpr_2016/">birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians have dropped by more than half</a>. At its root, this widespread environmental destruction is a result of our growth as a species and increasing food consumption to sustain ourselves.</p>
<p>Although climate change casts a shadow over future conservation efforts, farming is the <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v546/n7656/full/nature22900.html">No. 1 threat to wildlife</a>. We have already <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/070062/abstract">altered some 75 per cent of the ice-free land</a> on this planet. If we continue along our current course, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/108/50/20260">we will need to double our crop production</a> to feed a growing world population that demands more resource-intensive foods such as meat and dairy.</p>
<h2>Africa at risk</h2>
<p>Our research shows that Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly at risk of harmful agricultural development. This region is at the crossroads of economic, demographic and agricultural growth, and minimizing potential effects of agricultural change there is an urgent challenge.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178522/original/file-20170717-6046-18tdj36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178522/original/file-20170717-6046-18tdj36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178522/original/file-20170717-6046-18tdj36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178522/original/file-20170717-6046-18tdj36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178522/original/file-20170717-6046-18tdj36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=181&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178522/original/file-20170717-6046-18tdj36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178522/original/file-20170717-6046-18tdj36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178522/original/file-20170717-6046-18tdj36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=228&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The potential biodiversity loss due to agricultural expansion and intensification worldwide could be as high as 317 species in some locales (left), reaching 31 per cent of known vertebrate animals (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Laura Kehoe)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This becomes more worrying when considering the percentage of land that is currently at risk (i.e. natural but arable) and not protected against future development. Four-fifths of the regions we identify at risk of farmland expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa are unprotected. This is less than half of the 43 per cent protected in Latin America.</p>
<p>Some may mistakenly believe that protecting land from farming is about preserving wildlife habitat while local people go hungry. But it’s not a binary choice. Instead, the goal is to ensure an ample supply of nutritious food while at the same time conserving the most biodiverse and unique places on Earth. This is possible if we try. Knowing in advance what areas are most at risk allows us to better plan for a more sustainable future.</p>
<p>Aside from protecting land, food can be grown at little to no cost to biodiversity. For example, small-holder agro-ecological farming, which uses diverse cropping techniques along with fewer chemical fertilizers and pesticides, can produce <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320712000821">large quantities of nutritious food at little to no cost</a> to wildlife. </p>
<p>We need to increase awareness of agro-ecological farming methods and secure local people’s land-holder rights — a crucial step to preventing large foreign corporations from buying up land for monoculture farming. </p>
<p>Communities adopting agro-ecological techniques is a win-win solution that goes a long way towards sustainably feeding the world without pushing wildlife towards extinction.</p>
<h2>What can policy makers do?</h2>
<p>Current large-scale <a href="http://www.conservation.org/How/Pages/Hotspots.aspx">conservation schemes</a> are based on factors that include past habitat loss and the threatened status of species, but none include the potential for future land-use change. We need to do a better job of predicting future pressures on wildlife habitat, especially because timely conservation action is cheaper and more effective than trying to fix the damage caused by farming. Our research takes a step in this direction.</p>
<p>We also show which countries could do with more support for conservation initiatives to protect land and find ways to sustainably grow food. Suriname, Guyana and the Republic of the Congo are just a few examples, as well as a number of countries in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa that are at the centre of high agricultural growth, low conservation investment and very high numbers of species that could be lost due to agricultural development. </p>
<p>Since most agricultural demand comes from richer nations, those countries should provide education and support for sustainable farming methods and locally led conservation efforts. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178526/original/file-20170717-27512-dd5mjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178526/original/file-20170717-27512-dd5mjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178526/original/file-20170717-27512-dd5mjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178526/original/file-20170717-27512-dd5mjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178526/original/file-20170717-27512-dd5mjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178526/original/file-20170717-27512-dd5mjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178526/original/file-20170717-27512-dd5mjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178526/original/file-20170717-27512-dd5mjm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map shows countries at risk of high species loss from agricultural development (yellow, bear icon), rapid agricultural growth 2009 to 2013 (orange, tractor symbol), and differing levels of conservation spending. Red represents low spending, high growth, and high species loss. Purple shows high spending, high growth, and low species loss. Green is high spending, low growth, and high species loss. Low values for all three factors are in grey. White represents no data. Dollar figures per square kilometre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laura Kehoe</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What can you do?</h2>
<p>All of this raises the question: How can we eat well without harming wildlife? One simple step we can all take right now that would have a far greater impact than any other (aside from having fewer children): Cut out the grain-fed beef. </p>
<p>The inefficiency of feeding livestock grain to turn them into meals for humans makes a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969715303697">diet heavy in animals particularly harsh on the Earth’s</a> resources. For example, in the United States, it takes <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Should_We_Eat_Meat_Evolution_and_Consequ.html">25 kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of beef</a>. Pigs have a grain-to-meat-ratio of 9:1, and chickens are 3:1. </p>
<p>Imagine throwing away 25 plates of perfectly good food to get one plate of beef — the idea is absurd and would likely be news if done en masse. But that is precisely what we are all unknowingly doing by eating resource-intensive meat. Articles on food waste seem half-baked when keeping in mind the bizarre grain-to-meat ratio of many of our most popular meats. </p>
<p>There are ways in which farmers can raise livestock with little to no environmental damage, particularly when land is not overgrazed and trees remain on the landscape. Indeed, in some remote areas grazing cattle are a crucial source of food and nourishment. Unfortunately, the industrialized feedlot model that relies heavily on grain makes up the overwhelming majority of the meat in your supermarket. That is the kind of farming that our research investigates.</p>
<h2>Livestock and deforestation</h2>
<p>To make matters worse, the grain we feed animals is the leading driver of deforestation in the tropics. And it’s a hungry beast: our <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v478/n7369/full/nature10452.html">cows, pigs, and poultry devour over one-third of all crops</a> we grow. Indeed, the grain we feed to animals in the U.S. alone <a href="http://news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/08/us-could-feed-800-million-people-grain-livestock-eat">could feed an additional 800 million people</a> if it were eaten by us directly — more than the number of <a href="http://www.worldhunger.org/2015-world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/">people currently living in hunger</a>. </p>
<p>Livestock quietly causes <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/stop-deforestation/whats-driving-deforestation#.WSsT8e1tnIU">10 times more deforestation</a> than the palm oil industry but seems to get about 10 times less media attention. While it’s certainly true that avoiding unsustainable palm oil is a good idea, avoiding eating animals that were raised on grain is an even more effective conservation tactic.</p>
<p>Feeding the world without damaging nature is one of the greatest challenges humanity faces. But with a little foresight, better land governance and some simple meal changes, many of the solutions are at arm’s length. </p>
<p>For wildlife’s sake, go forth and enjoy your veggie burgers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81061/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Kehoe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As much as one-third of animal species in the tropics could be eradicated if their habitats continue to be converted for monoculture farming. We can all do something to make a difference.Laura Kehoe, Researcher in Conservation Decision Science and Land Use, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/783422017-05-26T03:35:24Z2017-05-26T03:35:24ZScientists are accidentally helping poachers drive rare species to extinction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170917/original/file-20170525-31761-tpg49j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The beautiful Chinese cave gecko, or Goniurosaurus luii, is highly prized by poachers</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carola Jucknies</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you open Google and start typing “Chinese cave gecko”, the text will auto-populate to “Chinese cave gecko for sale” – just US$150, with delivery. This extremely rare species is just one of an increasingly large number of animals being pushed to extinction in the wild by animal trafficking.</p>
<p>What’s shocking is that the illegal trade in Chinese cave geckoes began so soon after they were <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/312/5777/1137.2">first scientifically described</a> in the early 2000s. </p>
<p>It’s not an isolated case; poachers are trawling scientific papers for information on the location and habits of new, rare species. </p>
<p>As we argue in an <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6340/800">essay published today in Science</a>, scientists may have to rethink how much information we publicly publish. Ironically, the principles of open access and transparency have led to the creation of detailed online databases that pose a very real threat to endangered species. </p>
<p>We have personally experienced this, in our research on the endangered <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=1665">pink-tailed worm-lizard</a>, a startling creature that resembles a snake. Biologists working in New South Wales are required to provide location data on all species they discover during scientific surveys to an online wildlife atlas. </p>
<p>But after we published our data, the landowners with whom we worked began to find trespassers on their properties. The interlopers had scoured online wildlife atlases. As well as putting animals at risk, this undermines vital long-term relationships between researchers and landowners.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170933/original/file-20170525-31823-1hc3e3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170933/original/file-20170525-31823-1hc3e3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170933/original/file-20170525-31823-1hc3e3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170933/original/file-20170525-31823-1hc3e3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170933/original/file-20170525-31823-1hc3e3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170933/original/file-20170525-31823-1hc3e3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170933/original/file-20170525-31823-1hc3e3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170933/original/file-20170525-31823-1hc3e3f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The endangered pink-tailed worm-lizard (Aprasia parapulchella).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The illegal trade in wildlife has <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12707/abstract">exploded online</a>. Several <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716301987">recently described species</a> have been devastated by poaching almost immediately after appearing in the scientific literature. Particularly at risk are animals with small geographic ranges and specialised habitats, which can be most easily pinpointed. </p>
<p>Poaching isn’t the only problem that is exacerbated by unrestricted access to information on rare and endangered species. Overzealous wildlife enthusiasts are increasingly scanning <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6340/800">scientific papers, government and NGO reports, and wildlife atlases</a> to track down unusual species to photograph or handle. </p>
<p>This can seriously disturb the animals, destroy <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-1795.2010.00356.x/abstract">specialised microhabitats</a>, and spread disease. A striking example is the recent outbreak in Europe of a <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/346/6209/630">amphibian chytrid fungus</a>, which essentially “eats” the skin of salamanders. </p>
<p>This pathogen was introduced from Asia through wildlife trade, and has already driven some fire salamander populations to extinction. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170931/original/file-20170525-31756-18wdqgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170931/original/file-20170525-31756-18wdqgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170931/original/file-20170525-31756-18wdqgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170931/original/file-20170525-31756-18wdqgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170931/original/file-20170525-31756-18wdqgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170931/original/file-20170525-31756-18wdqgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170931/original/file-20170525-31756-18wdqgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170931/original/file-20170525-31756-18wdqgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fire salamanders have been devastated by diseases introduced through the wildlife trade.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erwin Gruber</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rethinking unrestricted access</h2>
<p>In an era when poachers can arm themselves with the latest scientific data, we must urgently rethink whether it is appropriate to put detailed location and habitat information into the public domain. </p>
<p>We argue that before publishing, scientists must ask themselves: will this information aid or harm conservation efforts? Is this species particularly vulnerable to disruption? Is it slow-growing and long-lived? Is it likely to be poached?</p>
<p>Fortunately, this calculus will only be relevant in a few cases. Researchers might feel an intellectual passion for the least lovable subjects, but when it comes to poaching, it is generally only charismatic and attractive animals that have broad commercial appeal. </p>
<p>But in high-risk cases, where economically valuable species lack adequate protection, scientists need to consider <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320714001293">censoring themselves</a> to avoid unintentionally contributing to species declines.</p>
<p>Restricting information on rare and endangered species has trade-offs, and might inhibit some conservation efforts. Yet, much useful information can still be openly published without including specific details that could help the nefarious (or misguided) to find a vulnerable species. </p>
<p>There are signs people are beginning to recognise this problem and adapt to it. For example, new species descriptions are now being published <a href="https://www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.3980.1.4">without location data</a> or habitat descriptions. </p>
<p>Biologists can take a lesson from other fields such as palaeontology, where important fossil sites are <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-stop-the-fossil-trade-in-its-tracks-and-heres-how-26330">often kept secret</a> to avoid illegal collection. Similar practices are also <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11759-008-9073-9">common in archaeology</a>.</p>
<p>Restricting the open publication of scientifically and socially important information brings its own challenges, and we don’t have all the answers. For example, the dilemma of organising secure databases to collate data on a global scale remains unresolved. </p>
<p>For the most part, the move towards making research freely available is positive; encouraging collaboration and driving new discoveries. But legal or academic requirements to publish location data may be dangerously out of step with real-life risks.</p>
<p>Biologists have a centuries-old tradition of publishing information on rare and endangered species. For much of this history it was an innocuous practice, but as the world changes, scientists must rethink old norms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Scheele is supported by the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Programme to carry out research that improves the management of Australia’s threatened species.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Lindenmayer receives funding from The Australian Research Council, the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program (Threatened Species Recovery Hub), and the Government of Victoria. He is the Research Director of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub within the National Environmental Science Program. He is also the Research Director of the Long-term Ecological Research Network within the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. </span></em></p>Biologists have a centuries-old tradition of publishing on rare and endangered species. But poachers are using open-access information to target valuable and fragile new species.Benjamin Scheele, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Ecology, Australian National UniversityDavid Lindenmayer, Professor, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/513162016-01-06T19:24:14Z2016-01-06T19:24:14ZWhat does it mean to think and could a machine ever do it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105006/original/image-20151209-3276-vemyr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can a machine really think, be in awe and wonder?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Photobymhu</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The idea of a thinking machine is an amazing one. It would be like humans creating artificial life, only more impressive because we would be creating consciousness. Or would we?</p>
<p>It’s tempting to think that a machine that could think <em>would</em> think like us. But a bit of reflection shows that’s not an inevitable conclusion. </p>
<p>To begin with, we’d better be clear about what we mean by “think”. A comparison with human thinking might be intuitive, but what about animal thinking? Does a chimpanzee think? Does a crow? Does an <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-octopuses-smart/">octopus</a>? </p>
<p>There may even be alien intelligences that we might not even recognise as such because they are so radically different from us. Perhaps we could pass each other in close proximity, each unaware that the other existed, having no way to engage. </p>
<p>Certainly animals other than humans have cognitive abilities geared towards understanding tools and causal relationships, communication, and even to recognising directed and purposeful thinking in others. We’d probably consider any or all of that thinking.</p>
<p>And let’s face it, if we built a machine that did all the above, we’d be patting ourselves on the back and saying “mission accomplished”. But could a machine go a step further and be like a human mind? What’s more, how would we know if it did?</p>
<p>Just because a computer acts like it has a mind, it doesn’t mean it must have one. It might be all show and no substance, an instance of a <a href="http://consc.net/zombies.html">philosophical zombie</a>.</p>
<p>It was this notion that motivated British codebreaker and mathematician Alan Turing to come up with his famous <a href="http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/reingold/courses/ai/turing.html">“Turing test”</a>, in which a computer would interact with a human through a screen and, more often than not, have the human unsure it was a computer. For Turing, all that mattered was behaviour, there was no computational “inner life” to be concerned about.</p>
<p>But this inner life matters to some of us. The philosopher Thomas Nagel said that there was “<a href="http://organizations.utep.edu/portals/1475/nagel_bat.pdf">something that it is like</a>” to have conscious experiences. There’s something that it is like to see the colour red, or to go water skiing. We are more than just our brain states.</p>
<p>Could there ever be “something that it’s like” to be a thinking machine? In an imagined conversation with the first intelligent machine, a human might asked “Are you conscious?”, to which it might reply, “How would I know?”.</p>
<h2>Is thinking just computation?</h2>
<p>Under the hood of computer thinking, as we currently imagine it, is sheer computation. It’s about calculations per second and the number of potential computational pathways. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7tScAyNaRdQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How can meat think?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But we are not at all sure that thinking or consciousness is a function of computation, at least the way a binary computer does it. Could thinking be <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/">more than just computation</a>? What else is needed? And if it is all about computation, why is the human brain so bad at it? </p>
<p>Most of us are flat out multiplying a couple of two digit numbers in our heads, let alone performing trillions of calculations a second. Or is there some deep processing of data that goes on below our awareness that ultimately results in our arithmetically impaired consciousness (the argument of so-called <a href="http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/reference%20articles/what_is_AI/What%20is%20AI13.html">Strong AI</a>)?</p>
<p>Generally speaking, what computers are good at, like raw data manipulation, humans are quite bad at; and what computers are bad at, such as language, poetry, voice recognition, interpreting complex behaviour and making holistic judgements, humans are quite good at.</p>
<p>If the analogy between human and computer “thinking” is so bad, why expect computers to eventually think like us? Or might computers of the future lose their characteristic arithmetical aptitude as the full weight of consciousness emerges?</p>
<h2>Belief, doubt and values</h2>
<p>Then we have words like “belief” and “doubt” that are characteristic of human thinking. But what could it possibly mean for a computer to believe something, apart from the trivial meaning that it acted in ignorance of the possibility that it could be wrong? In other words, could a computer have genuine doubt, and then go ahead and act anyway? </p>
<p>When it comes to questions of value, questions about what we think is important in life and why, it’s interesting to consider two things. The first is if a thinking computer could be capable of attributing value to anything at all. The second is that if it could attribute value to anything, what would it choose? We’d want to be a bit careful here, it seems, even without getting into the possibility of mechanical free will. </p>
<p>It would be nice to program into computers a human style value system. But, on the one hand, we aren’t quite sure what that is, or how that could be done, and, on the other hand, if computers started programming themselves they may decide otherwise.</p>
<p>While it’s great fun to think about all this, we should spend a bit of time trying to understand what we want thinking computers to be. And maybe a bit more time should be spent trying to understand ourselves before we branch out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51316/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Ellerton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As machines get ever more complex as we strive to make them complete more complex tasks, it’s time to ask again: will they ever be able to think? But what is thinking anyway?Peter Ellerton, Lecturer in Critical Thinking, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/454672015-07-31T13:35:29Z2015-07-31T13:35:29ZEven educated fleas do it … but is animal sex spicier than we thought?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90430/original/image-20150731-11813-elbigd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fly me to the moon</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&searchterm=animal%20sex&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=192062309">Nednapa</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s an <a href="http://www.omgfacts.com/lists/7406/Dolphins-are-the-only-animal-that-have-sex-for-pleasure-ab630-0">idea circulating</a> that humans are the only animal to experience sexual pleasure; that we approach sex in a way that is distinct from others. As with many questions about sex, this exposes some interesting facts about the way we discuss the subject.</p>
<p>On one level, the question of whether humans and nonhumans experience sex in the same way is fairly simply dismissed: how would we know? We cannot know how a nonhuman experiences anything – they can’t be asked. Sex as an experiential phenomenon for nonhumans is, quite simply, inaccessible. Science is obliged to propose questions that are answerable, and “how does a leopard slug experience sex?” is, at time of writing, about as unanswerable as they get.</p>
<p>Having said that, we can make educated guesses about whether sex is pleasurable for other species. Sex would be a very strange thing to seek if it didn’t bring some form of pleasure. It increases risk of disease, it wastes energy, it can seriously increase the likelihood of something bigger coming along and eating you (seriously, check out leopard-slug reproduction).</p>
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<p>There’s no reason why an animal should seek sex unless they enjoy it. It is often proposed that an inherent “drive to reproduce” explains nonhuman sexual activity, but that is not an alternative here: if animals possess an instinct to reproduce, it needs to function somehow – and pleasure is a fairly basic motivator. The hypothesis that all sexually reproducing species experience sexual pleasure is, in itself, quite reasonable – as would be the hypothesis that animals find eating pleasurable.</p>
<h2>Peak performance</h2>
<p>This hypothesis about sex has been tested. Since the word “pleasure” is quite vague, scientists have tended to focus on orgasms. As a particularly intense form of sexual pleasure for many people, the logic has been that if non-humans experience orgasm, they are almost certainly experiencing pleasure. </p>
<p>Given that we are most familiar with human orgasms, scientists have unsurprisingly looked for behavioural and physical correlates of what we sometimes experience – shuddering, muscular rigidity, a cessation of movement, vocalisation, changes of facial expression, ejaculation. None of these are guaranteed, and consequently we should not expect them necessarily to be associated with sex in other species. But using this method, most commonly to study non-human primates, the animals perhaps most likely to display responses similar to humans, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/primate-sexuality-9780199544646?cc=gb&lang=en&">scientists have detected</a> orgasm in many different species including macaques, orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees. </p>
<p>In fact, very few primatologists doubt that non-human primates experience orgasm – at least, male non-human primates. <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01542242#page-1">There is debate</a> as to whether female primates (including humans) experience sexual pleasure in the same way male primates do, which raises some fairly important questions about how Western culture views female sexual agency. But some detailed studies of the stump-tailed macaque <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7384791">have suggested</a> that females of this species, at least, demonstrate a capacity for orgasm.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90433/original/image-20150731-11796-1j6zd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90433/original/image-20150731-11796-1j6zd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90433/original/image-20150731-11796-1j6zd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90433/original/image-20150731-11796-1j6zd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90433/original/image-20150731-11796-1j6zd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90433/original/image-20150731-11796-1j6zd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90433/original/image-20150731-11796-1j6zd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90433/original/image-20150731-11796-1j6zd5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">‘The post-coital twig’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/orangutan/search.html?page=2&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=284840792">Funny Solution Studio</a></span>
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<h2>One size fits all</h2>
<p>Drilling down the totality of the “experience of sexual pleasure” to the moment of orgasm is problematic, though. It is the result of the pioneering work of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Human-Sexual-Response-William-Masters/dp/0923891218">Masters and Johnson</a> dating from 1966. They focused sexual pleasure on orgasm by proposing a four-stage biomedical framework of excitement, plateau, orgasm and resolution. Despite much criticism, it entered intellectual and public consciousnesses as a description of “normal” sex, involving genitals and aimed at producing orgasms.</p>
<p>But while this may describe sex for many, it excludes an awful lot of people. A brief survey of the various things that humans get up to quickly indicates that sex isn’t necessarily focused on orgasm or genitals. Focusing sex on genitals and orgasm only makes sense if we assume that the central function of sex is reproduction – exactly the same assumption that seems to lie behind scientific enquiries into sexual pleasure in other species. </p>
<p>Various cultures maintain that sex is not connected to conception, though – most famously the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2627148/Inside-worlds-original-free-love-community-Trobriand-Islanders-change-spouses-want-dedicated-love-huts-settle-differences-game-cricket.html">Trobriand Islanders</a> of the South Pacific. New reproductive technologies have meanwhile separated sex and reproduction: it is not necessary for a people to have sex in order to conceive. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given that people have more sex than they have children. The yoking of sex to reproduction to the exclusion of pleasure can be traced to the Victorian era, and is the consequence of all sorts of exciting historico-political processes that would take a whole separate article to explain, but it seeped into all aspects of Western culture, including science.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90432/original/image-20150731-11823-g241xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90432/original/image-20150731-11823-g241xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90432/original/image-20150731-11823-g241xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90432/original/image-20150731-11823-g241xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90432/original/image-20150731-11823-g241xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90432/original/image-20150731-11823-g241xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90432/original/image-20150731-11823-g241xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90432/original/image-20150731-11823-g241xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">‘Mind where you’re putting that trumpet’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/animal+sex/search.html?page=2&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=239978791">RCKM594</a></span>
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<p>Not to suggest that sex isn’t involved in reproduction. The gamete exchange that is necessary for conception to occur is, in general, the result of some form of contact between bodies. But when people say that “humans are the only species to have sex for pleasure” they are really saying that “humans are the only species that has non-reproductive sex”. </p>
<p>In fact, sex may well serve a number of other functions. Sex <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347200914519">may bond</a> animals together or <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00170251#page-1">may cement</a> a dominance hierarchy in the case of <a href="http://www.bonobo.org/bonobos/what-is-a-bonobo/">bonobos</a>, for example, one of humans’ closest relatives. These functions may be extremely important, especially for social animals, and would likely only be feasible if sex were in itself a source of pleasure.</p>
<p>There is also no shortage of examples where non-human sex has nothing to do with reproduction at all. Females of many species mate with males when they are non-fertile (marmosets for example). And same-sex sexual behaviour, which is definitionally non-reproductive, occurs in every vertebrate species in which it has been looked for, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168010296010875">along with</a> some <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347209004485">non-vertebrates</a> (bedbugs, for example, or fruit flies). </p>
<p>This evidence alone should lead us to expect that many animals experience sexual pleasure in much the same way that humans do – that the pleasure involved in sex leads many animals to seek it in non-reproductive contexts, and that this aspect of sexuality is not as unique as humans may like to think. This insight is surely vital to understanding sex in other species, not to mention all other aspects of their behaviour too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45467/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Lawson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scientists have tended to think of nonhuman sexual behaviour as being all about reproduction. In fact, there is far more ha ha hee hee than we give animals credit for.Jamie Lawson, Teaching Fellow in Anthropology, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.