Posts tagged American
7,000 B.C. homes are without heating gas
Dec 6th
To supplement our Colorado crews working to restore natural gas service to customers in Boulder County affected by this morning’s outage, we have called in additional Xcel Energy crews from around the state and from Minnesota and Wisconsin. We have also contacted utilities in California and New Mexico plus private companies too. With temperatures hovering in the single digits, we want to restart service as quickly and safely as possible. Approximately 7,000 homes are without service. We estimate 90 percent of customers will have service by noon tomorrow. Crews will work around-the-clock to restore service to customers.
We will call customers in advance to alert them that crews will be in their neighborhoods to relight pilots for natural gas appliances. It is important that we can reach you with this information. If you have not given us your cell phone number in the past, please call us at 1-800-895-4999 to provide your cell phone number or another alternate phone number.
To help our crews restore your service tonight, please turn on an outside light if you will be available to let them into your home. A person who is at least 18 years old must be at home to allow our crews access to your home. If not, we will need to return later. Please do not attempt to re-light natural gas appliances yourself. Not only can your appliances or equipment be damaged by improper re-lights but you can place yourself and your family in danger.
Our employees will check your appliances and re-light them for you free of charge. The American Red Cross opened a warming shelter for people affected by the natural gas outage. The center is located at Douglass Elementary School, 840 75th St. near 75th Street and Baseline Road.
CU study: Some primates sleep in caves for safety
Dec 4th
The ring-tailed lemurs may be opting to sleep in caves for several reasons, said University of Colorado Boulder anthropology Associate Professor Michelle Sauther, who led the study. While the cave-sleeping behavior is likely important because it provides safety from potential predators, it also can provide the primates with access to water and nutrients, help to regulate their body temperatures during cold or hot weather and provide refuge from encroaching human activities like deforestation, she said.
“The remarkable thing about our study was that over a six-year period, the same troops of ring-tailed lemurs used the same sleeping caves on a regular, daily basis,” she said. “What we are seeing is a consistent, habitual use of caves as sleeping sites by these primates, a wonderful behavioral adaptation we had not known about before.”
A paper on the subject appeared in the November issue of the journal Madagascar Conservation and Development. Funding for the project came from Primate Conservation Inc., the International Primate Society, the American Society of Primatologists, the National Geographic Society, CU-Boulder, the University of North Dakota, Colorado College and the National Science Foundation.
Although sleeping in caves by ring-tailed lemurs — which are found only in Madagascar — has likely been going on for millennia, it is only now being recognized as a regular behavior, said Sauther. The endangered Fusui langurs, slender, long-tailed Asian monkeys roughly 2 feet tall, also have been documented sleeping in caves but as a direct result of extreme deforestation, moving from cave to cave every few days. There also have been isolated reports of South African baboons sleeping in caves.
Ring-tailed lemurs are easily identified by their characteristic, black and white ringed tails, which can be twice as long as their bodies. They weigh roughly 5 pounds with a head-body length of up to 18 inches and are highly social, congregating in groups of up to 30 individuals. Sporting fox-like snouts and slender frames, they are unusual among lemurs, spending a considerable amount of time on the ground feeding on leaves and fruit and socializing, said Sauther.
In “gallery forests” near rivers, ring-tailed lemurs regularly sleep high in the canopies of tall trees. But in “spiny forests,” most of the trees with woody stems are covered in rows of spines, making them uncomfortable as well as dangerous sleeping sites because predators can easily climb them, Sauther said. The new study documents their cave sleeping behavior in the dry spiny forest habitat adjacent to limestone cliffs.
The lemur observations were made at the 104,000-acre Tsimanampesotse National Park and the Tsinjoriake Protected Area in southwestern Madagascar between 2006 and this year. The research team used field observations and motion-detector camera traps to chart the behavior and movements of 11 different troops of ring-tailed lemurs.
One of the early clues to the cave sleeping by the lemurs was their presence on limestone cliffs adjacent to spiny forest trees or on the ground when Sauther’s research team arrived at the study sites early in the morning. “They seemed to come out of nowhere, and it was not from the trees,” she said. “We were baffled. But when we began arriving at the study sites earlier and earlier in the mornings, we observed them climbing out of the limestone caves.”
The primary predator of the lemurs is a cat-like, carnivorous mammal called a fossa native only to Madagascar that is closely related to the mongoose and may weigh up to 20 pounds. Fossil evidence shows a cougar-sized relative of the fossa that only became extinct several thousand years ago likely preyed on lemurs as well, she said.
There is evidence that some early ancestors of humans in South Africa may have used caves to protect themselves from predators, said Sauther. The remains of hominids going back several million years have been found inside or near limestone caves there, and some fossil bones have evidence of damage consistent with the bite of saber-toothed cats.
“We think cave-sleeping is something ring-tailed lemurs have been doing for a long time,” she said. “The behavior may be characteristic of a deep primate heritage that goes back millions of years.”
Co-authors of the new study included Associate Professor Frank Cuozzo of the University of North Dakota, Ibrahim Antho Youssouf Jacky, Lova Ravelohasindrazana and Jean Ravoavy of the University of Toliara in Madagascar, Krista Fish of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Marni LaFleur of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Fish and LaFleur are former CU-Boulder students of Sauther.
Sauther co-directs the Beza Mahafalay Lemur Biology Project in southwestern Madagascar with Cuozzo, a former CU-Boulder doctoral student. Centered at the roughly 1,500-acre Beza Mahafalay Special Reserve, the research focuses on how climate- and human-induced change affects lemur biology, behavior and survival.
Sauther and her team were aided by field observations made by students and faculty from the University of Toliara in Madagascar. In addition, undergraduate and graduate students from CU-Boulder regularly travel to Madagascar to conduct research under Sauther, including students from CU’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, which provides hands-on research and fosters student-faculty relationships.
“I never thought I would have a chance as a CU undergraduate to conduct research in an exotic place like Madagascar,” said former UROP student Anthony Massaro, who was part of a team that trapped ring-tailed lemurs, measured their physical characteristics including dentition, and released them back into the wild. “Dr. Sauther and Dr. Cuozzo mentored and guided me through the process of creating and conducting a unique research project.”
Unfortunately, habitat destruction, including deforestation, is increasing in many parts of Madagascar. In southwestern Madagascar, trees are being harvested for cattle forage, construction materials and firewood, and the mining of limestone there — used for the production of cement, fertilizer and other products — is increasing. Ring-tailed lemurs are now listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission.
Sauther has been conducting research on Madagascar for 25 years, beginning as a University of Washington graduate student. Today she has several CU-Boulder doctoral students working with her, including James Millette, who is studying how the tooth wear of lemurs relates to their foraging behaviors.
“Madagascar is a challenging place to conduct research,” Millette said. “Part of our job is to work with local communities, because without the support of these people there would be no lemur conservation. We consider Beza, where we have been working with the community for several decades, to be a real success story.”
A video of ring-tailed lemurs climbing into a cave is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjWF3_SmYS0&feature=youtu.be.
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CU Frosh soccer phenom gets called to camp
Nov 27th
CARSON, Calif. – University of Colorado freshman phenom Brie Hooks was called into the U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team training camp, which is running here from November 24 to December 1 at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center at the StubHub Center.
“We are excited that Brie has been called into this U-20 camp,” CU head coach Danny Sanchez said. “This opportunity is a byproduct of her play this fall, but also the team’s success. We know that she will represent herself and Colorado soccer well.”
Hooks stood out in her debut season at Colorado. In her first collegiate game, Hooks helped the Buffaloes to a 3-0 shutout of Northern Colorado behind a two-goal performance. Hooks is the first Buff in program history to score multiple goals in her Colorado debut. Hooks was an important part of the Buffs’ 1-0 victory over No. 15 Denver in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship, drawing the foul that set up the game-winning goal – Hooks and the Buffs ended their season with a trip to the Sweet 16, matching the program best finish first recorded in 2006.
In CU’s freshman offensive record books, Hooks concluded the season ranked third with eight goals and fourth with 18 points. Her 42 shots tie for eighth. Her eight goals also tie for eighth most in a single season at CU. Her four game-winning goals tie for fourth best in a single season at CU and tie for fourth best in Pac-12 Conference regular season play.
The training camp will serve as a bridge camp to an event in Florida in December, which will be the final preparation for the team before the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football Women’s U-20 Championship which will run from January 9-19 at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex in George Town, Cayman Islands.
The tournament features eight nations divided into two groups of four teams. The top two finishers in each group will qualify for the semifinals, with the winners of those games along with the winner of the third-place match earning berths to the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, to be held in Canada. Players born on or after January 1, 1994 are age-eligible for the World Cup.
The USA is in Group A with Costa Rica, Jamaica and Guatemala, while Group B features the host Cayman Islands, Honduras, Trinidad & Tobago and Mexico.
The USA opens play on Thursday, Jan. 9 against Costa Rica, faces Jamaica on Saturday, Jan. 11 and finishes the group against Guatemala on Monday, Jan. 13. All three of the USA’s group games kick off at 5:30 p.m. MT. The semifinal matches will take place on Friday, Jan. 17 and the Championship and Third-Place matches are on Jan. 19.
Hooks joins the likes of Amy Barczuk and Nikki Marshall – record-breaking players at Colorado who turned their collegiate and national training camp success into professional careers. Barczuk was selected to the 2011 U.S. Women’s National Team Under-23 Training Camp and was a member of the U-23 player pool.
Marshall appeared in numerous training camps and tournaments as a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team U-23 player pool from 2009-11. With the U-20 team, Marshall helped the Americans to the silver medal at the 2007 Pan American Games and to the FIFIA U-20 Women’s World Cup Championship in 2008, where she was named the Sierra Mist Woman of the Match in the 2-1 championship win over North Korea.
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Marlee Horn Graduate Assistant SID University of Colorado