Animals Mating With Humans For Real - Part 3 (Mobile)
EZBEIDY CITLALI LEMUS MANILLA
Ambient levels of nonionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) have risen sharply in the last five decades to become a ubiquitous, continuous, biologically active environmental pollutant, even in rural and remote areas. Many species of flora and fauna, because of unique physiologies and habitats, are sensitive to exogenous EMF in ways that surpass human reactivity. This can lead to complex endogenous reactions that are highly variable, largely unseen, and a possible contributing factor in species extinctions, sometimes localized. Non-human magnetoreception mechanisms are explored. Numerous studies across all frequencies and taxa indicate that current low-level anthropogenic EMF can have myriad adverse and synergistic effects, including on orientation and migration, food finding, reproduction, mating, nest and den building, territorial maintenance and defense, and on vitality, longevity and survivorship itself. Effects have been observed in mammals such as bats, cervids, cetaceans, and pinnipeds among others, and on birds, insects, amphibians, reptiles, microbes and many species of flora. Cyto- and geno-toxic effects have long been observed in laboratory research on animal models that can be extrapolated to wildlife. Unusual multi-system mechanisms can come into play with non-human species - including in aquatic environments - that rely on the Earth's natural geomagnetic fields for critical life-sustaining information. Part 2 of this 3-part series includes four online supplement tables of effects seen in animals from both ELF and RFR at vanishingly low intensities. Taken as a whole, this indicates enough information to raise concerns about ambient exposures to nonionizing radiation at ecosystem levels. Wildlife loss is often unseen and undocumented until tipping points are reached. It is time to recognize ambient EMF as a novel form of pollution and develop rules at regulatory agencies that designate air as 'habitat' so EMF can be regulated like other pollutants. Long-term chronic low-level EMF exposure standards, which do not now exist, should be set accordingly for wildlife, and environmental laws should be strictly enforced - a subject explored in Part 3.
Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis, the human itch mite, is in the arthropod class Arachnida, subclass Acari, family Sarcoptidae. The mites burrow into the upper layer of the skin but never below the stratum corneum. The burrows appear as tiny raised serpentine lines that are grayish or skin-colored and can be a centimeter or more in length. Other races of scabies mites may cause infestations in other mammals, such as domestic cats, dogs, pigs, and horses. It should be noted that races of mites found on other animals may cause a self-limited infestation in humans with temporary itching due to dermatitis; however they do not multiply on the human host.
Wild pigs are capable of carrying and transmitting at least 30 bacterial, fungal, and viral diseases which threaten humans, livestock, and wildlife (7, 57). Some of those which can infect humans are brucellosis, leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, and trichinosis (58). Though disease transmission to humans is a real concern, the largest threat from wild pig diseases is the potential transmission to domestic livestock. Diseases such as swine brucellosis, pseudorabies, classic swine fever, and African swine fever can result in birth defects and death of various livestock and wildlife species (7). Diseases such as classic swine fever and foot and mouth disease have been eradicated from the United States pork industry and are considered foreign-animal diseases. Wild pigs, however, have the potential to act as a reservoir for these diseases making it difficult or impossible to eradicate them again in areas with infected wild pig populations (59). A scenario where one of these diseases is reintroduced could cause crippling damage to the United States agricultural industry (7, 60). One extreme scenario is the reemergence of foot and mouth disease in the United States. If this disease were to be reintroduced to the domestic livestock industry, it could cause up to $21 billion in loss of agricultural income and a portion of small farmers to lose their farms (61). For more information on diseases transmissible to humans, domestic animals and wildlife, please see Diseases of Feral Swine (PDF).
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Carnivora
- Family: Canidae (dog family)
- Genus: Canis (Latin word meaning "dog")
- Species: lupus (Greek word meaning "wolf")
- Common names: gray wolf, timber wolf
- Names in other languages: Lobo (Spanish), Loup (French), Lupo (Italian), Varg (Swedish), Ulv (Norwegian)
- Average body mass: males 110 pounds (50 kg); females 90 pounds (41 kg)
- Heaviest known wolf in Yellowstone: 148 pounds (wolf 760M of Yellowstone Delta pack with no food in stomach)
- Average height at shoulder: males 81 cm, females 77 cm
- Average length: 181 cm
- Eyes: blue at birth, light yellow to gold to brown as an adult
- Number of bones: 319 males, 318 females
- Number of teeth: 42
- Dental formulae: incisors 3 top/3 bottom, canines 1/1, premolars 4/4, molars 3/2 (on each side)
- Pelage: gray or black (ratio 50:50), rarely white
- Black coat color: caused by K-locus gene thought to have originated from historic hybridization with domestic dogs 500-14,000 years ago
- Locomotion: tetrapedal, digitigrade
- Average rate of speed: 5 miles/hour (8 kph)
- Top speed: 35 miles/hour (56 kph)
- Body temperature: 100-102.5 F (37.3-39.1 C)
- Respiration: 10-30 breathes per minute
- Heart rate: 70-120 beats per minute
- Bite pressure: 1,200 psi
- Smell: excellent, although unmeasured. Estimated to be thousands of times better than humans
- Vision: excellent night vision; no red or green cones, but have blue and yellow cones
- Hearing: little is known, but probably similar to dogs (relatively normal hearing abilities compared to other mammals)
- Howling function: many uses, including intrapack communication, advertising territory, coordinating social activities
- Distance howling can be heard: forest=11km (6.6 mi), open areas=16 km (9.6 mi)
- Feeding habits: generalist carnivore; scavenges when possible and has been known to eat small amounts of vegetation
- Primary food sources in Yellowstone: Winter: elk (>96%), bison (3-4% and increasing in recent years; deer (1.5%); Spring: elk (89%), bison (7%), deer (7.1%); Summer: elk (85%), bison (14.1%), deer (5 years old: 18%
- Current North American population: 67,100-74,100 (53,600-57,600 of these in Canada)
- Average home range size in Yellowstone (northern range): 274 km2 (range=58-1,151 km2)
- Average home range size in Yellowstone (interior): 620 km2 (range=105-1675 km2)
- Average home range size in Yellowstone (park-wide): 428 km2
- Group of wolves: pack/ family (one of few eusocial species)
- Average pack size in Yellowstone: 9.8
- Largest pack recorded in Yellowstone: Druid Peak, 37 wolves (2001); may be the largest ever recorded (42 wolves seen together in Wood Buffalo National Park (1974) but unknown if they were a single pack)
- Percent of population that are lone wolves in Yellowstone: 2-5%
- Percent of population that are lone wolves in North America: 10-15%
- Sex ratio: 50:50
- Mating: usually monogamous, but about 25% of packs have multiple breeding pairs under polygymous matings
- Courtship: mid-February
- Gestation: 63 days
- Birth period: mid-April
- Birth location: den
- Typical dens: excavated under large roots, boulders, hillsides, caves with a tunnel leading to an enlarged chamber; several entrances and chambers may be present
- Den emergence: 10-14 days
- Average litter size in Yellowstone: 4.4 at den emergence, 3.2 survive until late December
- Maximum litter size recorded in Yellowstone: 11
- Split litters: multiple fathers per litter have not been detected in wild gray wolves
- Weaning: 5-9 weeks from milk, then brought food (regurgitation) for another 3 months
- Milk content: 6.6% fat; 144 kCal per 100 grams
- Rendezvous sites: used as wolf pups get older as a central homesite; time spent there and number of homesites varies widely between packs
- Average female age at first litter in Yellowstone: 2.7
- Oonset of female reproduction senescence: 4-5 years
- Interbirth interval: can be every year
- Eyes open: 12-14 days
- Dispersal: both sexes, YNP average age 2 years, 1 month; range 1-4 years
Although the short-term health effects of formaldehyde exposure are well known, less is known about its potential long-term health effects. In 1980, laboratory studies showed that exposure to formaldehyde could cause nasal cancer in rats. This finding raised the question of whether formaldehyde exposure could also cause cancer in humans. In 1987, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified formaldehyde as a probable human carcinogen under conditions of unusually high or prolonged exposure (1). Since that time, some studies of humans have suggested that formaldehyde exposure is associated with certain types of cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies formaldehyde as a human carcinogen (2). In 2011, the National Toxicology Program, an interagency program of the Department of Health and Human Services, named formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen in its 12th Report on Carcinogens (3).
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