FROM BBC NEWS

Mercury affects the behaviour of white ibises by "turning them homosexual", with higher doses resulting in males being more likely to pair with males.

Scientists in Florida and Sri Lanka studied the effect of mercury in the birds' diet. Their aim was to find out why it reduced the ibises' breeding.

Mercury pollution can come from burning coal and waste, and run-off from mines.

The report, in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows that wetland birds are particularly badly affected by it.
   
We're seeing very large reproductive effects at very low concentrations. 

Although the researchers already knew that eating mercury-contaminated food could affect an animal's development, they were surprised by the "strange" results of this experiment.

"We knew mercury could depress their testosterone (male sex hormone) levels," explained Dr Peter Frederick from the University of Florida, who led the study. "But we didn't expect this."

The team fed white ibises on food pellets that contained concentrations of mercury equivalent to those measured in the shrimp and crayfish that make up the birds' wetland diet.

The higher the dose of mercury in their food pellets, the more likely a male bird was to pair with another male.


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FROM The Telegraph
America's grizzly bears growing fat and lazy
Grizzly bears in America's western states are becoming increasingly fat and lazy as a result of increased contact with humans, according to conservation experts


A population boom among the bears has pushed them out of the Rocky Mountains and into the path of humans, where they have found plentiful food without the need for hunting.

Jamie Jonkel, a bear expert at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said that the grizzlys had learned gluttony and laziness from their human neighbours.

He told the Guardian that the bears had "started living the good life", eating corn and vegetables from fields and quickly getting "fatter and fatter".

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Merck Sued: HomeAgain® Pet Chip Implicated in Cancer New website, ChipMeNot.com, features details on cancer case and other adverse reactions

Bulkin, the cat at the center of the Merck - HomeAgain lawsuit


Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. has been served with a lawsuit over claims its HomeAgain® pet microchip induced cancer in a cat. Animal rights attorney Steven Wise seeks "reasonable compensatory damages" for a malignant tumor "likely" induced by a HomeAgain® ID chip implanted in his client's cat, Bulkin.

The complaint, "Andrea Rutherford v. Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. and Digital Angel, Inc." (case # 1052CV1147) was filed last week in Cambridge (MA) District Court. The complaint named implant maker Digital Angel Corporation as a co-defendant.

"Based on the alarming number of microchip-linked cancers we're discovering, I predict this lawsuit will be just the tip of the iceberg," said Dr. Katherine Albrecht, a consumer advocate and expert on adverse reactions associated with implantable microchips.

Bulkin's case is featured at www.ChipMeNot.com, a new website launched by Albrecht's consumer group CASPIAN to bring attention to the plight of animals who have developed cancer and other adverse reactions from ID microchips. Albrecht documents several of these cases in "Microchip-Induced Tumors in Laboratory Rodents and Dogs: A Review of the Literature 1990–2006," a peer-reviewed academic paper she presented at a June conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers devoted to concerns about implantable microchips.

Albrecht's paper and a copy of the complaint are also posted at www.ChipMeNot.com. The site, co-developed with graduate intern Lidiya Prorochuk, spotlights a growing number of adverse reactions to microchips, including the chip-related cancer deaths of two dogs within the past year. The site also features a form where pet owners can report adverse microchip reactions, since there is currently no official registry in the US to collect such data.


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