In this issue of Wildlife News Round-Up, there's news of an ancient penguin that measured over four feet in height, the discovery of the earliest fossil specimen of a Giant Panda, and the spotting of a rare blue-eyed cicada. In the Russian Far East, a new park has been established to protect Siberian Tigers and in Australia, the Department of Environment and Conservation grapples with a rapidly expanding camel population. There's also reports of sea birds abandoning nests on the Farallon Islands, in what could be a response to the region's changing wind patterns.

• Coral Reef Fish Starve Themselves to Maintain Social Order (National Geographic) — June 28, 2007. Emerald Coral Gobies live in schools of up to 17 individuals. Within that group, a single female is dominant. Scientists have discovered that subordinate females within the school reduce their food intake and as a result remain smaller than the dominant female.
• House Cat Origin Traced to Middle Eastern Wildcat Ancestor (National Geographic) — June 28, 2007. Geneticists have traced five matriarchal lineages of domestic cats back as far as 70,000 to 100,000 years. Their findings indicate that cats were domesticated around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago when human populations started farming.
• Giant Penguins Once Roamed Peru Desert, Fossils Show (National Geographic) — June 25, 2007. Paleontologists from North Carolina State University have reported the discovery of two new species of penguins that roamed South America as much as 35 million years ago. One of the fossil penguins described is thought to have measured about 4.5 feet in height.
• Shifting Winds Disrupt Island Birds' Feeding Habits (NPR) — June 24, 2007. Hundreds of thousands of migratory sea birds flock to the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco each year to bread. Now scientists fear changing wind currents are causing some of those birds to abandon their nests.
• Remains of Earliest Giant Panda Discovered (Science Daily) — June 19, 2007. University of Iowa scientists have reported the discovery of a two-million-year-old Giant Panda skull. The fossil panda represents the oldest specimen of Giant Pandas discovered to date.
• Fruit Bats Are Not 'Blind as a Bat' (Science Daily) — June 16, 2007. Scientists have discovered that flying foxes, a type of nocturnal bat, possess cone photoreceptor cells. These cells, present in the retina of most mammals, are associated with daylight and color vision. Bats were among the few mammals thought to lack these retinal cells.
• Siberian Tiger Gets First National Park in Russian Far East (Science Daily) — June 14, 2007. The Russian Government recently established Zov Tigra National Park, a 200,000 acre national park in Russia's Far East aimed at helping protect the endangered Siberian (Amur) Tiger.
• Australia's Camels Thrive on Climate Swings (NPR) — June 16, 2007. Camels were introduced to Australia in the 19th century. Today over 1 million camels roam the Australia deserts and their populations are expanding.
• Blue-Eyed Cicada Spotted in Midwest (NPR) — June 11, 2007. A six-year-old boy who lives near Chicago found a rare blue-eyed cicada. Most cicadas have red eyes but about one in a million have blue eyes.
• The Thrill of the Trill: Capturing an Insect Symphony (NPR) — June 3, 2007. A new book (and companion CD) 'Songs of Insects' documents the chorus of crickets, grasshoppers, cicadas, and katydids that fill the summer air with insect sounds.

About Wildlife News Round-Up

Wildlife News Round-Up is a monthly digest featuring animals and wildlife headlines from around the web. It includes headlines from well-established sources such as the World Wildlife Fund, BBC News, New York Times, National Public Radio, National Geographic, and Birdlife International. The sources are selected with care and include only those that archive articles for many years, offer top-notch science writing, and follow stories as they develop over time.

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