Factors Affecting Capture Rates of Insect Taxa by Retail Electrocutors and Eliminators in Northern Lower Michigan

We compare the abundance and types of insects captured at several locations, with and without a chemical attractant and in varying weather conditions using two different devices advertised to kill biting insects. Using both an insect electrocutor that uses ultraviolet light as an attractant, with and without octenol as an added attractant, and an insect eliminator that uses carbon dioxide, heat and octenol as attractants, more non-biting than biting insects were captured. Numerous harmless and beneficial insects were killed with electrocutors. Although eliminators were more target-specific, they captured fewer insects overall compared to electrocutors. The numbers and types of insects captured also varied by location and temperature conditions. More insects were killed by electrocutors located next to a lake compared to those located in an inland forested area and more were killed at lower compared to higher heights above the ground. More insects were also killed by electrocutors on warmer than on cooler nights. More non-biting insects were killed with electrocutors baited with octenol than without octenol

Population viability and management recommendations for wild water buffalo Bubalus bubalis in Kosi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Nepal

Population characteristics, breeding structure, and sources of mortality of wild water buffalo Bubalus bubalis were studied in Kosi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, a small reserve located in the southeastern lowlands of Nepal, during 1987 and 1988. Comparisons with an earlier census indicated that the population was growing over a 12-year time interval. However, observations on the physical nature of the reserve and known seasonal movements of buffalo suggested that the population is not viable for several reasons. Most morality observed during the study took place over the rainy season, suggesting that flooding was the major source; half of the first-year calves disappeared during that time. Because the reserve was subject to extensive flooding during the rains, buffalo regularly left to reside in cane and sugar fields. Hence the reserve did not include the annual home range of any buffalo herds. In addition, thousands of domestic cattle and hundreds of domestic buffalo used the reserve illegally, which posed a risk of disease to wild water buffalo. Management recommendations, including a re-introduction of the species into Royal Chitwan National Park, are made in light of the analysis.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31022/1/0000698.pd

Factors Affecting Capture Rates of Insect Taxa by Retail Electrocutors and Eliminators in Northern Lower Michigan

We compare the abundance and types of insects captured at several locations, with and without a chemical attractant and in varying weather conditions using two different devices advertised to kill biting insects. Using both an insect electrocutor that uses ultraviolet light as an attractant, with and without octenol as an added attractant, and an insect eliminator that uses carbon dioxide, heat and octenol as attractants, more non-biting than biting insects were captured. Numerous harmless and beneficial insects were killed with electrocutors. Although eliminators were more target-specific, they captured fewer insects overall compared to electrocutors. The numbers and types of insects captured also varied by location and temperature conditions. More insects were killed by electrocutors located next to a lake compared to those located in an inland forested area and more were killed at lower compared to higher heights above the ground. More insects were also killed by electrocutors on warmer than on cooler nights. More non-biting insects were killed with electrocutors baited with octenol than without octenol

On the Road to Sustainability? A Review of a Half-Century of Biodiversity Conservation Successes in Nepal and Some Thoughts on Future Needs

We review the history, over the past half-century, of biodiversity conservation legislation and programs in Nepal. We especially consider how they have evolved in light of some earlier concerns resulting from, for example, the strict “fines and fences” conservation approaches first implemented in the 1970s, to pressing issues that emerged over time such as park-people and wildlife-human conflicts, poaching and illegal wildlife trade. We also consider how the implementation of international conservation agreements and demographic and political changes have affected conservation programs in Nepal. We finish by discussing conservation in the context of sustainable development and conclude with some thoughts on future research and managerial needs in a rapidly-changing world

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.Peer reviewe

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

Population, resources, and environment: Implications of human behavioral ecology for conservation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43481/1/11111_2005_Article_BF02207996.pd

Feeding strategies and success rates of different age classes of Herring Gulls.

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/53224/1/1658.pdfDescription of 1658.pdf : Access restricted to on-site users at the U-M Biological Station

Regulatory Compliance of Community-Based Conservation Organizations: Empirical Evidence from Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal

Community-based conservation in the developing world generally puts more emphasis on voluntary commitments and compliance rather than enforcement of formal laws and regulations for the governance of protected areas. However, as with other forms of organizational management, once institutions are established, they are required to comply with all relevant, legally binding regulations. Furthermore, it is broadly assumed that compliance with established regulations is critical for good governance. In this paper, we review these matters through an empirical study of Conservation Area Management Committees’ degree of compliance with regulations under Nepalese law, within the Annapurna Conservation Area—one of the best-known community-based protected areas worldwide—based on quantitative content analysis of the committees’ meeting minutes from 2008 to 2012. According to the established rules, two to four women and one to five minorities serve as committee members in each instance. On average, fewer members than expected attended meetings, and the number of decisions made per meeting showed a curvilinear relationship with the number of members present as well as their demographic diversity. Of the 13 committees selected for study, only two met the legal mandate of holding six regular meetings annually within two-month intervals. In all the other cases, non-compliance was noted for one to all five years of the committees’ terms. In general, compliance declined over the five-year terms, and some committees were significantly less-compliant than others. Although enforceable decisions were made within both compliant and non-compliant committees, several problems of non-compliance were identified that may affect conservation outcomes. We suggest several possible reasons for non-compliance and argue that these may be symptoms of institutional weaknesses. Organizations that fail to meet their commitments risk liability and may also lose the formal legal authority to govern. Regular monitoring is recommended to address compliance issues