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Mexican border barriers impact on pumas and coatis
Barriers in parks on the US/Mexican border are having more impact on the movement of pumas and coati, than they are on the human illegal activity they were put up to stop, researchers claim.
Barriers in parks on the US/Mexican border are having more impact on the movement of pumas and coati, than they are on the human illegal activity they were put up to stop, researchers claim.

Park restrictions impact on animals but fail to stop illegal activity study finds

Security barriers in national parks on the US/ Mexican border are having a bigger impact on the restriction of movement of native species, such as pumas and coati, than they are on humans, research has found.

National parks in their vicinity can be vulnerable to the smuggling of people and drugs.

Barriers have been put up to counter illegal activity. But they are restricting the territory of native species according to new research from the University of Bristol.

Bristol PhD student, Jamie McCallum, now of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), and colleagues from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences and ZSL investigated the impacts of illegal activity and the barriers themselves.

They used automatically triggered cameras (camera traps) to measure the number of humans, native and invasive mammals in four US parks on the Mexican international boundary. 

Comparisons were made between areas with barriers and those without. Puma and coati were detected more often in areas without barriers, whereas counts of humans were seemingly unaffected.

The findings have been published in an article 'Conservation on international boundaries: the impact of security barriers on selected terrestrial mammals in four protected areas in Arizona, USA'  in PLoS ONE

Image by Danny Nicholson

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Vets to run marathon for World Animal Protection

News Story 1
 Two recently graduated veterinary surgeons will be running the London Marathon in April to raise money for the charity World Animal Protection.

Alex Bartlett and Maeve O'Neill plan to run the race together if they are given the same start times.

Dr O'Neill said: "You're always limited in what you can do to help animals, so it is nice to raise money for a charity that helps animals around the world."

Dr Bartlett added: "I have never run a marathon before and am excited to run my first one for such a good cause!"

Both Dr Bartlett and Dr O'Neill have fundraising pages online. 

Click here for more...
News Shorts
BSAVA releases new Guide to Procedures

The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) has published a new edition of its Guide to Procedures for Small Animal Practice.

It has added four new procedures; cystostomy tube placement, endotracheal intubation, point-of-care ultrasound and wet-to-dry dressings.

BSAVA says that it is an essential step-by-step guide to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed in practice. The textbook includes new images and illustrations, as well as high-definition videos for use prior to procedures.

Nick Bexfield and Julia Riggs, editors of the new edition, said: "We have built upon the success of the previous editions by responding to the feedback received from the BSAVA readership, and hope this new guide helps to further increase the confidence and accuracy with which these procedures are performed."

Print copies are available in the BSAVA store, with a digital version in the BSAVA library.