"Never Forgetting" Helps Elephants Survive, Study Says

Memories of drought remain with old female elephants and could help their clans survive during hard times, new research suggests. Scientists made the discovery after reviewing data on elephant herds gathered in Tanzania's Tarangire National Park, which experienced a severe drought from 1958 to 1961.

When a second extreme drought hit the area again in 1993, elephant groups with mothers who lived through the drought 35 years earlier left the park to seek food and water, ensuring a better survival rate for their clan.

"The data show that the family groups that left the park fared much better than those that remained," said lead study author Charles Foley, a researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

During the more recent drought, two elephant groups that left the park in search of better food and water lost fewer than 10 percent of their elephant calves, while a sole family group that stayed lost 40 percent of its calves.

During nondrought conditions, only 2 percent of calves die each year. Foley and colleagues from WCS and the Zoological Society of London detailed their findings earlier this month in the journal Biology Letters.

Elephant Memory

In the wild, elephants can live well into their late 60s. In East Africa, extreme droughts occur every 45 to 50 years, on average.

Experts believe there could be strong selective pressure for elephant matriarchs to live long enough to experience at least two droughts during their lifetime and to retain key information on how to migrate to survive.

In Tarangire National Park, the oldest elephant matriarchs of groups that left during the 1993 drought were five years or older when the 1958-61 drought occurred. These females likely guided the family groups in their clans to drought refuges outside the park, researchers say.

The group that stayed behind in Tarangire in 1993 had no individual old enough to have experienced the severe drought of the past. That probably explains why the group didn't leave, Foley said. "In other words, this would provide a selective reason for why 'elephants don't forget,'" Foley said. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, a zoologist and founder of Save the Elephants, says that researchers long suspected the evolutionary advantage of having matriarchs as a memory bank.

"The speculation was there and was written about," Douglas-Hamilton said, noting that the new study is the first "to really prove that there was a selective advantage in terms of survival that occurred with groups that had the older members."

In elephant society, females lead their family groups, which is why the ability to remember carries more weight in females than males.

Protection Needed

Researchers behind the new study say it shows the importance of protecting veteran elephants as droughts begin to increase as a result of global warming. "If the few remaining older individuals are eliminated from a population, the impact can extend far beyond just their family group," Foley said.

"The effects of removing old individuals may not be seen for 10, 15, even 20 years after the event. But will eventually impact the population during the next severe drought," he added.

Foley said park managers should strive to protect older elephants, particularly in countries where culling is used as a management tool. "The shooting of older animals should be avoided at all costs," he said.

Japan to offer incentives on clean diesel cars

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is looking to introduce incentives for consumers buying clean diesel cars starting next fiscal year in a bid to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a government official said on Thursday.

Details including the credit amount will be firmed up by the end of the year with an eye to implementing the incentives from next April, an official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said.

Subject to the incentives will be diesel-engine cars that clear tighter regulations on nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions to be introduced in Japan in October 2009.

Nissan Motor Co will become the first automaker to launch a diesel car that meets the criteria next month, when it rolls out the diesel X-Trail sport utility vehicle.

Among other Japanese automakers, Honda Motor Co is planning a clean diesel car next year, while Mitsubishi Motors Corp and Subaru-maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd have also promised a diesel car for Japan.

Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz is currently the only brand selling diesel passenger cars in Japan. The E-Class diesel sedan, which costs more than 8 million yen ($72,970), would not clear Japan's next emissions standards.

Diesel cars are around 20-30 percent more fuel-efficient than comparable gasoline cars and emit less carbon dioxide, linked to global warming. They are expected to carry a price premium of 300,000 yen to 400,000 yen ($2,700-$3,600) over gasoline cars, the METI official said, part of which will be subsidized.

The new regulations will limit emissions of PM, a component of soot, to around a third of current levels and equal to the standard for gasoline cars. The limit on NOx emissions will be nearly halved to 0.08 grams per km, compared with 0.05 grams for gasoline.

The Japanese government offered consumer incentives on hybrid cars for nine years from 1998 to help promote the fuel-efficient, gasoline-electric vehicles when they were first launched.

($1=109.63 Yen)

China sets up first environmental exchange

Currently Chinese sellers sell carbon emission quota at between eight and
10 euros (12 to 15 dollars) per tonne, compared to the international level of around
17 euros per tonneChina has launched its first environmental exchange in Beijing,
aiming to eventually provide a platform for emission quota trading.

The Beijing Environmental Exchange will be a trading platform for environmental protection technology as well as sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand emission permits, the China Beijing Equity Exchange said in a statement on its website.

"The Beijing Environment Exchange will fully play its role as a market platform bringing together domestic and foreign companies, agencies, banks and investment banks," Xiong Yan, chairman of the exchange, said in the statement.

The exchange will report directly to government departments including the environmental protection ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning agency.

It is the first environmental equity trading institution in China and will initially focus on environmental technology business, with an aim to finally incorporating carbon emission trading, said Tuesday's Beijing Evening News.

It is also expected to help lift domestic carbon emission quota prices to the international level by providing access to trading information for local sellers, according to the report.

Currently Chinese sellers sell carbon emission quota at between eight and 10 euros (12 to 15 dollars) per tonne, compared to the international level of around 17 euros per tonne, it said.