Pollution can change wildlife behaviour

With an increasing number of factors affecting the animal behaviour, the field of behavioural toxicology is gaining traction within the environmental sciences.

A team of scientists from the University of Portsmouth has developed new scientific tests to better understand the effects of pollution on wildlife behaviour.

An organism’s behaviour is fundamentally important to their survival through feeding, finding mates and escaping predators. Any chemical which could interfere with these responses has the potential to impact the food chain.

Using small shrimp-like crustaceans called amphipods, which are commonly used to monitor environmental toxicology, the researchers have been designing experiments to best answer the questions.

In previously determining that these animals prefer to swim away from the light (negative phototaxis) and preferably be touching the sides of the tanks (positive thigmotaxis), they first set about asking whether these preferences could be altered by the size and shape of their testing tanks..READ MORE

Shark pulls woman overboard by biting finger in Australia

A woman who was pulled into crocodile-infested waters in northwestern Australia when a shark bit her finger as she attempted to feed it has described the terrifying moment which nearly cost her a digit.

Melissa Brunning said she was on a yacht in the remote Kimberley region some 2,500 kilometres (1,553 miles) north of Perth when she tried to hand-feed up to four Tawny nurse sharks hanging around the back of the boat.

The two-metre (6.6-foot) creature — which has strong jaws and rows of sharp teeth — sucked at her right index finger “like a Hoover (vacuum cleaner)”, she told The West Australian late yesterday.

“I think the shark was in shock as much as I was… the only way I can describe it is this immense pressure and it felt like it was shredding it off the bone,” the 34-year-old said.

“I came up and I was like, ‘I’ve lost my finger, my finger’s gone’.” Mobile phone footage of the incident at Dugong Bay in late May, aired by commercial broadcaster Channel Seven yesterday, showed Brunning screaming as she was dragged into the water before the boat’s crew and friends quickly pulled her out.

She sustained cuts, a fracture, a torn ligament and a bad infection on her finger as a result of the encounter, but miraculously did not lose the digit.

“It’s not the shark’s fault at all, but it could have been a lot worse,” Brunning said, adding that she had learnt to “respect marine life, and look at it in awe, but just leave them alone”.

Brunning said she did not realise that she should have left the piece of fish in front of her and watch the shark suck it up, instead of trying to hand-feed it.

“This is not a shark attack, this is just a blonde doing a stupid thing…. When you’re in the water, they’re top of the food chain, it’s their domain. We’re not meant to be in the water, if we were we’d have gills,” she added.

Apart from sharks, saltwater crocodiles — which can grow up to seven metres long and weigh more than a tonne — are also found at the bay.

ARTICLE SOURCE : BUSINESS STANDARD