(Press-News.org) A team of scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society, BirdLife International, and other groups have discovered a new species of bird with distinct plumage and a loud call living not in some remote jungle, but in a capital city of 1.5 million people.
Called the Cambodian tailorbird (Orthotomus chaktomuk), the previously undescribed species was found in Cambodia's urbanized capitol Phnom Penh and several other locations just outside of the city including a construction site. It is one of only two bird species found solely in Cambodia. The other, the Cambodian laughingthrush, is restricted to the remote Cardamom Mountains.
Scientists describe the new bird in a special online early-view issue of the Oriental Bird Club's journal Forktail. Authors include: Simon Mahood, Ashish John, Hong Chamnan, and Colin Poole of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Jonathan Eames of BirdLife International; Carl Oliveros and Robert Moyle of University of Kansas; Fred Sheldon of Louisiana State University; and Howie Nielsen of the Sam Veasna Centre.
The wren-sized gray bird with a rufous cap and black throat lives in dense, humid lowland scrub in Phnom Penh and other sites in the floodplain. Its scientific name 'chaktomuk' is an old Khmer word meaning four-faces, perfectly describing where the bird is found: the area centered in Phnom Penh where the Tonle Sap, Mekong and Bassac Rivers come together.
Only tiny fragments of floodplain scrub remain in Phnom Penh, but larger areas persist just outside the city limits where the Cambodian Tailorbird is abundant. The authors say that the bird's habitat is declining and recommend that the species is classified as Near Threatened under the IUCN's Red List. Agricultural and urban expansion could further affect the bird and its habitat. However, the bird occurs in Baray Bengal Florican Conservation Area, where WCS is working with local communities and the Forestry Administration to protect the Bengal florican and other threatened birds.
This same dense habitat is what kept the bird hidden for so long. Lead author Simon Mahood of WCS began investigating the new species when co-author Ashish John, also of WCS, took photographs of what was first thought to be a similar, coastal species of tailorbird at a construction site on the edge of Phnom Penh. The bird in the photographs initially defied identification. Further investigation revealed that it was an entirely unknown species.
"The modern discovery of an un-described bird species within the limits of a large populous city – not to mention 30 minutes from my home – is extraordinary," said Mahood. "The discovery indicates that new species of birds may still be found in familiar and unexpected locations."
The last two decades have seen a sharp increase in the number of new bird species emerging from Indochina, mostly due to exploration of remote areas. Newly described birds include various babbler species from isolated mountains in Vietnam, the bizarre bare-faced bulbul from Lao PDR and the Mekong wagtail, first described in 2001 by WCS and other partners.
Colin Poole, Director of WCS Singapore and a co-author of the Forktail study said, "This discovery is one of several from Indochina in recent years, underscoring the region's global importance for bird conservation."
Co-Author Jonathan C. Eames of BirdLife International's OBE said: "Most newly discovered bird species in recent years have proved to be threatened with extinction or of conservation concern, highlighting the crisis facing the planet's biodiversity."
Steve Zack, WCS Coordinator of Bird Conservation, said, "Asia contains a spectacular concentration of bird life, but is also under sharply increasing threats ranging from large scale development projects to illegal hunting. Further work is needed to better understand the distribution and ecology of this exciting newly described species to determine its conservation needs."
INFORMATION:
Hiding in plain sight: New species of bird discovered in capital city
Cambodian tailorbird discovered within city limits of Phnom Penh
2013-06-26
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
USC research IDs potential treatment for deadly, HIV-related blood cancer
2013-06-26
LOS ANGELES — Researchers at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered a promising new way to treat a rare and aggressive blood cancer most commonly found in people infected with HIV.
The USC team shows that a class of drugs called BET bromodomain inhibitors effectively targets primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), a type of cancer for which those drugs were not expected to be effective.
"It's a reversal of the paradigm," said Preet Chaudhary, MD, PhD, chief of the Nohl Division of Hematology and Blood Diseases at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and ...
Telecoupling pulls pieces of sustainability puzzle together
2013-06-26
Global sustainability is like a high-stakes jigsaw puzzle – and an international group of scientists have created a new framework to assemble the big picture without losing pieces.
Scientists led by Jianguo "Jack" Liu, Michigan State University's Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability, have built an integrated way to study a world that has become more connected – with faster and more socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances. They say "telecoupling" describes how distance is shrinking and connections are strengthening between nature and humans.
In Ecology ...
Human and canine lymphomas share molecular similarities, first large-scale comparison shows
2013-06-26
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Humans and their pet dogs are close, so close that they both develop a type of cancer called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. In humans it's the most common lymphoma subtype while in dogs, it's one of the most common cancers in veterinary oncology.
A team of scientists from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Duke University have conducted one of the first studies to directly compare canine and human B-cell lymphoma by examining molecular similarities and differences ...
New research finds flu shot effective regardless of circulating flu strain
2013-06-26
New research out of St. Michael's Hospital has found that despite popular belief, the flu shot is effective in preventing the flu, even if the virus going around does not match the vaccine.
"It's quite common for people to say they are not going to get the flu shot this year because they've heard it does not match the strain of flu going around," said Dr. Andrea Tricco, the lead author of the paper and a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital. "However, we've found that individuals will be protected regardless of whether the flu strain ...
Delivering the best care to the right patient at the right time
2013-06-26
There are two popular models when it comes to delivering the best healthcare – using evidence-based guidelines or applying personalized medicine. Each method has its own merits and drawbacks, but according to one Northwestern Medicine® cardiologist, when the two theories are integrated the result is an optimal healthcare delivery model that is both less expensive and better for the patient.
"It should not be one or the other but instead a combination of both," said Jeffrey Goldberger, MD, an attending cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at Northwestern Memorial ...
Memory improves for older adults using computerized brain-fitness program
2013-06-26
FINDINGS:
UCLA researchers have found that older adults who regularly used a brain-fitness program on a computer demonstrated significantly improved memory and language skills.
The UCLA team studied 69 dementia-free participants, with an average age of 82, who were recruited from retirement communities in Southern California. The participants played a computerized brain-fitness program called Dakim BrainFitness, which trains individuals through more than 400 exercises in the areas of short- and long-term memory, language, visual-spatial processing, reasoning and ...
Hypertension-driven disease rapidly rising in sub-Saharan Africa
2013-06-26
NEW YORK (June 25, 2013) -- Based on the experience of a large hospital in Tanzania, Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have discovered a "startlingly" high burden of hypertension in this sub-Saharan African country.
In the Journal of Hypertension, the researchers say non-communicable disease -- driven primarily by hypertension, resulting in stroke and other cardiovascular diseases -- accounted for nearly half of the deaths and admissions during a three-year period at Weill Bugando Medical Center, one of Tanzania's preeminent teaching hospitals.
Previous research ...
One in 5 students in Grades 7-12 say they have had a traumatic brain injury in their lifetime
2013-06-26
TORONTO, June 25, 2013—One in five adolescents surveyed in Ontario said they have suffered a traumatic brain injury that left them unconscious for five minutes or required them to be hospitalized overnight, a statistic researchers in Toronto say is much higher than previously thought.
Sports such as ice hockey and soccer accounted for more than half the injuries, said Dr. Gabriela Ilie, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow at St. Michael's Hospital.
Traumatic brain injuries, such as concussions, were reported more often by males than females, by those with ...
Calcium and vitamin D help hormones help bones
2013-06-26
CLEVELAND, Ohio (June 26, 2013)—Should women take calcium and vitamin D supplements after menopause for bone health? Recommendations conflict, and opinions are strong. But now, an analysis from the major Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial throws weight on the supplement side—at least for women taking hormones after menopause. The analysis was published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society.
Among the nearly 30,000 postmenopausal women in the hormone trial, some 8,000 took supplemental calcium (1,000 mg/day) and vitamin D (400 ...
Unraveling the largest outbreak of fungal infections associated with contaminated steroid injections
2013-06-26
Philadelphia, PA, June 26, 2013 – Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describe pathologic findings from 40 case reports of fungal infection in patients who had been given contaminated epidural, paraspinal, or intra-articular (into joints) steroid injections and correlate these findings with clinical and laboratory data. The report, published in the September issue of The American Journal of Pathology, alerts clinicians and the general public to the catastrophic dangers of contaminated epidural injections.
In September 2012, CDC began ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
A graphene sandwich — deposited or transferred?
New light-powered motor fits inside a strand of hair
Oil rig study reveals vital role of tiny hoverflies
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia researchers boost widespread use of dental varnish across pediatric network
iRECODE: A new computational method that brings clarity to single-cell analysis
New NUS-MOH study: Singapore’s healthcare sector carbon emissions 18% lower than expected, a milestone in the city-state’s net zero journey
QUT scientists create material to turn waste heat into clean power
Major new report sets out how to tackle the ‘profound and lasting impact’ of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health
Cosmic crime scene: White dwarf found devouring Pluto-like icy world
Major report tackles Covid’s cardiovascular crisis head-on
A third of licensed GPs in England not working in NHS general practice
ChatGPT “thought on the fly” when put through Ancient Greek maths puzzle
Engineers uncover why tiny particles form clusters in turbulent air
GLP-1RA drugs dramatically reduce death and cardiovascular risk in psoriasis patients
Psoriasis linked to increased risk of vision-threatening eye disease, study finds
Reprogramming obesity: New drug from Italian biotech aims to treat the underlying causes of obesity
Type 2 diabetes may accelerate development of multiple chronic diseases, particularly in the early stages, UK Biobank study suggests
Resistance training may improve nerve health, slow aging process, study shows
Common and inexpensive medicine halves the risk of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer
SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events
Breakthrough advances sodium-based battery design
New targeted radiation therapy shows near-complete response in rare sarcoma patients
Does physical frailty contribute to dementia?
Soccer headers and brain health: Study finds changes within folds of the brain
Decoding plants’ language of light
UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC
New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury
New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows
Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?
1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5
[Press-News.org] Hiding in plain sight: New species of bird discovered in capital cityCambodian tailorbird discovered within city limits of Phnom Penh