Featured Post

Twenty Practical Steps to Better Corporate Governance | The Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA)

Twenty Practical Steps to Better Corporate Governance | The Corporate Secretaries International Association (CSIA) Please click the li...

Showing posts with label April 24. Show all posts
Showing posts with label April 24. Show all posts

Monday, April 24, 2017

Taking Another Look At Silver

http://ift.tt/2pXFoun

11182101_14930527088849_rId5_thumb.jpg

April 24, 2017 at 11:31PM

http://ift.tt/2pe7VOE

from

http://ift.tt/2pe7VOE


Bank of Marin Bancorp’s (BMRC) CEO Russ Colombo on Q1 2017 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

http://ift.tt/2pF8Rcm

og_image_410-b8960ce31ec84f7f12dba11a09f

April 24, 2017 at 11:25PM

http://ift.tt/2q7vg1o

from

http://ift.tt/2q7vg1o


New Orleans startup GLO seeking bankruptcy protection

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J
New Orleans charter airline operator GLO is trying to reorganize after a year and a half of offering regional nonstop flights. Courtesy GLO.

April 24, 2017 at 10:30PM

http://ift.tt/2oE5Nf3

from

http://ift.tt/2oE5Nf3


Fxwirepro: Gbp/usd Runs Out of Steam But Maintains Bullish Outlook

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

GBP/USD dipped on Monday as the dollar was buoyed after France’s presidential election first-round win for the market’s preferred candidate.

Uncertainties surrounding the French vote dissipated with traders starting to look past the global risk event after Centrist Emmanuel Macron, a pro-EU and former economy minister won the first round of voting and qualified for the May 7 runoff alongside far-right leader Marine Le Pen

Investors were concerned a victory for Le Pen could eventually put France on the path taken by Britain to leave the European Union.

However, further downside is set to be limited as the strong support at 1.2675 is set to hold the bears from declining further below and bring rebound back to higher levels.

To the upside, immediate resistance can be seen at 1.2838, a break above this level would expose the cable to next resistance level at 1.2903 levels.

To the downside strong support can be seen at 1.2756, a break below at this level will open the door towards next level at 1.2675.

Resistance Levels

R1:  1.2838 (38.2% Retracement level)

R2: 1.2903 (April 18th high)

R3: 1.2943 (23.6% Retracement level)

Support Levels

S1: 1.2756 (50 % Retracement level)                       

S2: 1.2675 (61.8 % Retracement level)

S3: 1.2600 (Psychological levels)

The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com

April 24, 2017 at 11:38PM

http://ift.tt/2pYBS69

from

http://ift.tt/2pYBS69


White House says Expects Vote on Healthcare Plan to Come When Congressional Leaders have Votes to Pass It

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J
WHITE HOUSE SAYS EXPECTS VOTE ON HEALTHCARE PLAN TO COME WHEN CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS HAVE VOTES TO PASS IT
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com

April 24, 2017 at 11:38PM

http://ift.tt/2paQE6R

from

http://ift.tt/2paQE6R


IBM Tests Watson Technology to Keep Eye on Traders – Fox Business

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

IBM Tests Watson Technology to Keep Eye on Traders
Fox Business
The company is also developing other capabilities for the technology, Ms. van Kralingen said. One analyzes regulatory text to identify obligations that companies might face and to help assess whether the company’s compliance programs are sufficient to …

April 24, 2017 at 11:48PM

http://ift.tt/2oYzMBV

from

http://ift.tt/2oYzMBV


White House says Negotiations Continue With Congressional Leaders Over Border Wall Funding, Expects Announcement Soon

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J
WHITE HOUSE SAYS NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE WITH CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS OVER BORDER WALL FUNDING, EXPECTS ANNOUNCEMENT SOON
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com

April 24, 2017 at 11:38PM

http://ift.tt/2pYz74H

from

http://ift.tt/2pYz74H


McDonald’s hits all-time high ahead of earnings, but this could send shares tumbling

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J
McDonald’s stock is up about 4 percent this month and nearly 10.6 percent for the year-to-date.

April 24, 2017 at 11:35PM

http://ift.tt/2peg31z

from

http://ift.tt/2peg31z


Elabe poll shows just how tough a climb it will be for Le Pen

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J
French election poll
– Macron 64%
– Le Pen 36%
Recovering from a 28-point deficit in two weeks would possibly be the greatest recovery in the history of major Western elections.

April 24, 2017 at 11:33PM

http://ift.tt/2pe7hkc

from Adam Button

http://ift.tt/2pe7hkc


Hand grenade ‘used during War of Independence’ found during renovations

http://ift.tt/2pejIfQ

river?version=3356511&width=1340

The Mills 36 hand grenade was made safe and disposed of by the Defence Forces.

April 24, 2017 at 11:30PM

http://ift.tt/2ooFWMS

from

http://ift.tt/2ooFWMS


Alphabet Inc (GOOGL) Stock Will Survive Earnings. It Always Does.

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

InvestorPlace – Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips

Alphabet (GOOGL) has missed on earnings twice in the past year, but hiccups tend to merely be buying opportunities in GOOGL stock.

The post Alphabet Inc (GOOGL) Stock Will Survive Earnings. It Always Does. appeared first on InvestorPlace.

April 24, 2017 at 11:24PM

http://ift.tt/2q7khoL

from Chris Fraley

http://ift.tt/2q7khoL


Just Buy Boeing Co (BA) Stock Ahead of Earnings

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

InvestorPlace – Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips

Investors should pick up Boeing (BA) ahead of its earnings release, as its guidance is likely to continue encouraging positivity in BA stock.

The post Just Buy Boeing Co (BA) Stock Ahead of Earnings appeared first on InvestorPlace.

April 24, 2017 at 11:24PM

http://ift.tt/2pt6rkp

from Laura Hoy

http://ift.tt/2pt6rkp


Halliburton: The LeBron James of Oil Services?

http://ift.tt/2p9lj3k

BP-AA208_crude_D_20170331134521.jpg

Halliburton (HAL) has gotten beaten up this year…and even today’s earnings beat doesn’t capable of reversing its fortunes.

Halliburton reported a profit of 4 cents, beating forecasts for 3 cents, on sales of $4.28 billion, narrowly edging expectations for $4.27 billion. Halliburton’s shares were trading higher before the market opened, but have declined have declined 0.3% to $46.90 at 1:56 p.m. today.

Evercore ISI’s James West sees a “margin explosion” coming for Halliburton during the second half of the year, while comparing the oil-services giant to LeBron:

April 24, 2017 at 11:20PM

http://ift.tt/2oEceP8

from Ben Levisohn

http://ift.tt/2oEceP8


Flying car startup says you’ll be able to buy one of its rides by the end of 2017

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J
Kitty Hawk, a highly secretive startup whose only publicly known investor is Google co-founder Larry Page, on Monday revealed a demo video.

April 24, 2017 at 10:30PM

http://ift.tt/2oEjOt0

from

http://ift.tt/2oEjOt0


Start-up dreams start here for Hong Kong entrepreneurs

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J
The graduation on Monday of the Hong Kong Science Park’s largest incubation programme for technology companies is living proof that you are never …

April 24, 2017 at 10:30PM

http://ift.tt/2oEkvT5

from

http://ift.tt/2oEkvT5


The women behind Prince: ‘The respect he showed us speaks volumes’

http://ift.tt/2pYDFbe

3573.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&f

Throughout his career, Prince championed female musicians, unlike many of his peers. We speak to some of those he influenced – and who, in turn, inspired him

Picture the scene: Prince’s 2005 Grammy’s afterparty, where Maceo Parker, Larry Graham and Stevie Wonder are jamming while Prince solos on guitar and keys at the same time. Comedian Kevin Hart and Patti LaBelle are in the audience. Matthew McConaughey is on percussion, shirtless, “having the time of his life”. Natalie Stewart, British-born poet and founder of Prince-endorsed band Floetry, was there as a guest, or so she thought. “Prince grabbed my hand to come up,” she recalls. “I performed, thought: ‘Phew, I’ve done it.’ Then he threw his hands up in the air to get me to double-time it … I give thanks to all the deities who helped me through that. Then he got me up again to triple-time it, which I do. I would say he was testing me.” As the solo woman in an impromptu supergroup of men, she passed with flying colours.

Stewart was just one of dozens of female musicians that Prince worked with until his death last year. In the manner of his heroes James Brown and George Clinton, in addition to his own music, he also worked on a series of acts – and the acts were predominantly female. Take Vanity6, the girl group formed in the early 80s, and their electrofunk take on the Supremes; Jill Jones, the soulful former backing singer, whose eponymous 1987 album was written and produced by Prince; and, of course, the duo Wendy & Lisa, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, who played with Prince as part of the Revolution during his particularly fertile period in the first half of the 80s. He also gave hit songs to Martika (Love Thy Will Be Done), Sinead O’Connor (Nothing Compares 2 U) and Sheena Easton (Sugar Walls, infamous at the time for its sexual imagery).

Continue reading…

April 24, 2017 at 11:32PM

http://ift.tt/2pYmMNX

from Lauren Cochrane. Additional research by Hannah J Davies

http://ift.tt/2pYmMNX


From Mars To Showers – How A Swedish Startup Is Targeting Water Buyers With Space Mission Tech

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J
Preserving water is an imperative for scientists planning a possible Mars Mission. A Swedish startup – Orbital Systems – is using space age tech to preserve water on earth. But can it find a market?

April 24, 2017 at 10:05PM

http://ift.tt/2oo5mKB

from Trevor Clawson, Contributor

http://ift.tt/2oo5mKB


EPA Quietly Asked The Public Which Clean Air Rules To Cut. Industry Answered Loudest.

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A utility lobbyist called on regulators to do less work monitoring greenhouse gas emissions. An oil and gas lobbyist praised the Trump administration’s retreat from safeguards and urged federal rulemakers to limit regulations on carbon emissions and smog. A lobbyist for wood-product manufacturers complained about the “ever-tightening” public health standards for ozone pollution and asked regulators to change the permitting process.

Those were just some of the requests made by industry advocates during a conference call Monday, when the Environmental Protection Agency held the first of several sessions to ask the public which rules should be eliminated under President Donald Trump’s executive order instructing agencies to slash regulations. The three-hour call, held by the Office of Air and Radiation, focused on clean air and ozone pollution rules.

In March, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced plans to hold the public hearings, but environmental advocates say the agency scheduled the events with little notice, in some cases just days in advance.

“New meetings appear on a website that the EPA has set up to coordinate the process, so unless you check it every day, it is easy to miss when a new hearing is announced,” Andrew Wetzler, deputy chief program officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote in a blog post ahead of Monday’s call. “All of this is made worse by the fact that EPA staff are offering only limited slots for in-person comments. In fact, some of the meetings aren’t public at all.”

The EPA’s Office of Water, Wetzler noted, is offering an in-person meeting with local water agencies, but only offering a “virtual listening session” over the phone to the public.

“And the deadline for the public to comment on rolling back all these crucial safeguards?” he added. “It ends in a mere three weeks.”

The EPA has already taken drastic steps to gut a host of rules, claiming they hold back businesses and stymie job growth. In March, the agency scrapped a rule requiring oil and gas drillers to report methane emissions, a greenhouse gas up to 86 times more heat-trapping than carbon dioxide. A week later, the White House shredded an Obama-era EPA assessment of fuel efficiency standards, a move celebrated by automakers that claimed complying with the regulation cost too much. By the end of the month, Trump signed an executive order instructing the EPA to rewrite the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s embattled rule to reduce emissions from electrical utilities.

“Regulations ought to make things regular,” Pruitt said in his first speech as EPA chief in February. “Regulations exist to give certainty to those they regulate. Those we regulate ought to know what’s expected of them so they can place and allocate resources to comply.”

Based on Monday’s call, the regulated heard him loud and clear. Lobbyists and business proponents vastly outnumbered ordinary citizens on Monday’s teleconference. Environmental advocates, however, made a considerable turnout to urge the agency not to press ahead with its rollbacks.

A handful of ordinary citizens also spoke during the call, with each given a strictly enforced three-minute limit. One man, who said he lives in Austin, Texas, said that when he testified on behalf of the Clean Power Plan during Barack Obama’s presidency, people filled two conference rooms at the EPA’s Atlanta office for a full day.

I’m horrified, absolutely horrified, at the degenerate level of contribution we’ve seen from representatives from industry.
A man who spoke during Monday’s public comment call

“Out of that process came a very robust and very responsible regulation and now we’re being asked to roll it back,” he said. “These are people’s lives. These are my children’s lives. This is the future of the planet. We cannot move backward on that. We need to have a strong, robust process, at least as robust as what we had in the past.”

Another man slammed the agency for limiting the opportunities for public comment to a mere phone call on a weekday morning.

“This process today has been extremely enlightening in how the new administration is completely curtailing and cutting out public comment by reducing this to a three-hour conference call on Monday, that no working person would be able to attend reasonably without being an activist in the space or a representative of a major corporate interest,” the man said, adding that his background is in economics. “This is not really fair and should be outright illegal.”

“I’m horrified, absolutely horrified, at the degenerate level of contribution we’ve seen from representatives from industry who have seemingly no concern for the massive, sweeping deleterious effects that are about to be suffered nationwide, should this repeal happen the way it is about to happen,” he added.

The operator promptly moved on to the next caller.


type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related… + articlesList=58dc3a27e4b08194e3b71ab3,58b07ebae4b060480e079dc2,58c87c64e4b01c029d773c19,58c2e96be4b0ed71826c70ef,58b88f81e4b05cf0f3ff242e

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

April 24, 2017 at 11:28PM

http://ift.tt/2pYnsm9

from Alexander C. Kaufman

http://ift.tt/2pYnsm9


Here’s Why Bank Stocks (DB, BAC, GS) Soared Today

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Shares of the world’s biggest banks are soaring on Monday after the results of the French election eased concern about big financials with international exposure. The biggest gainer to start the week looks to be European giant Deutsche Bank DB, which opened more than 10% higher today.

The important first round of France’s presidential election resulted in centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen advancing to the runoff. This was the desired outcome for many hesitant investors, as Macron holds a solid lead over Le Pen—and all of her associated uncertainty—in the latest head-to-head polls.

As the Eurozone continues to recover from the Brexit vote, a Macron victory is being welcomed from investors who view his presidency as a catalyst for a healthier European Union. While Macron desires a stronger partnership between Paris and Brussels, Le Pen has suggested that France reconsider its position in the bloc.

Deutsche Bank saw the biggest gain following the election, as investors now expect few changes for European banks, but others with Eurozone exposure, including Goldman Sachs GS, Bank of America BAC, and Citigroup C, also popped on Monday.

The SPDR S&P Bank ETF KBE, which currently sports a Zacks ETF Rank #1 (Strong Buy), was up more than 2.3% in morning trading hours.

The euro was also up following the results of the election, hitting a nearly six-month high against the dollar on Sunday and continuing to climb on Monday.

Investors should look for bank stocks to continue climbing this week, as President Trump is scheduled to reveal more details of his tax reform plan—a bill that is expected to ease operations for big banks—on Wednesday.

More Stock News: 8 Companies Verge on Apple-Like Run                    

Did you miss Apple’s 9X stock explosion after they launched their iPhone in 2007? Now 2017 looks to be a pivotal year to get in on another emerging technology expected to rock the market. Demand could soar from almost nothing to $42 billion by 2025. Reports suggest it could save 10 million lives per decade, which could in turn save $200 billion in U.S. healthcare costs.

 A bonus Zacks Special Report names this breakthrough and the 8 best stocks to exploit it. Like Apple in 2007, these companies are already strong and coiling for potential mega-gains. Click to see them right now >>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
 
Citigroup Inc. (C): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Bank of America Corporation (BAC): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Deutsche Bank AG (DB): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) (GS): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
SPDR-KBW BANK (KBE): ETF Research Reports
 
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
 
Zacks Investment Research

April 24, 2017 at 11:31PM

http://ift.tt/2oF9odF

from Ryan McQueeney

http://ift.tt/2oF9odF


He Was Searching For Intersexual Pigs And Ended Up Finding The World’s Rarest Dog

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Twenty years after beginning his quest to find what’s been called the world’s rarest canine species, James “Mac” McIntyre was vindicated. There on his camera screen were the images he’d been waiting years for. The New Guinea highland wild dog — an animal once feared extinct — was alive and well, his pictures showed.

“I squealed like a girl,” the 62-year-old said earlier this month, speaking from his Florida home. “It was emotionally such a tremendous moment. It was justification for all the work I’ve done.”

How McIntyre ended up finding the New Guinea highland wild dog, an animal whose existence had not been verified in almost 30 years, is a story as complex as McIntyre’s own. Trained as a zoologist, McIntyre has worked as a veterinary technician on a cattle ranch, zookeeper at the Bronx Zoo, high school biology teacher, logger and carpenter. But throughout his varied careers, scientific research and exploration have remained personal passions.

“On evenings and weekends, and summers too when I was a teacher, I’d conduct independent field research, on my own and on my own dime,” McIntyre said.

It was this spirit of enquiry that first led him to the South Pacific. But in the beginning, it wasn’t rare wild dogs that lured him there. It was pigs ― specifically intersexual ones.

‘Pig half-man half-woman’

Vanuatu, an archipelago west of Fiji, has the unique distinction of being home to what’s believed to be more intersexual pigs — animals with physical characteristics neither entirely male nor female — than any other nation in the world. McIntyre, who first heard of the pigs in a passing reference in a travel magazine, was so intrigued by the creatures that in 1993, he packed his bags, emptied his bank account to pay for a plane ticket and found himself halfway around the world searching the South Pacific island for swine known locally as “pig half-man half-woman.”

At the time, very little was known of the animals or even where they could be found. “I took a chance,” McIntyre said in a 1997 article about his search for the Vanuatu pigs. “People told me I was crazy, but I knew I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try.”

It ended up taking McIntyre six weeks of island hopping and questioning strangers in the street before he found his first intersexual pig — a discovery that would spark years of research into the animal.

In 1996, McIntyre returned to Vanuatu, only this time, he had another trip planned after his pig research was complete. At the suggestion of his mentor, ecologist I. Lehr Brisbin Jr., he decided to take a detour to the island of New Guinea before returning home to the United States. Brisbin, a canine expert, had suggested McIntyre search for the near-legendary wild dog of New Guinea, an animal that like Vanuatu’s pigs had long been shrouded in mystery.

Almost all that was known of the dog was from its domesticated descendant ― the New Guinea singing dog ― which exists only in captivity. 

Between the 1950s and 1970s, eight wild dogs had been captured in the New Guinea highlands and brought to Australia, North America and Europe, where they were bred as pets. Today, there are some 200 to 300 descendants worldwide of these “eight founder animals,” McIntyre said. Named for their unique and melodious howl, the singing dogs are domesticated animals who live mostly in private homes, though some are kept in zoos and other institutions. 

New Guinea singing dogs have been described as the world’s “most primitive” domesticated dog. Their forebears are thought to be closely related to the dingo, a wild canine in Australia, and may have been brought to New Guinea by humans about 6,000 years ago.

Another theory is that the dogs traveled over a land bridge between the two countries, which was flooded around the same time in history. “When the waters rose, it separated the dogs into two populations. Some went to adapt and evolve in the mountains of New Guinea while the dingos evolved to live in Australia,” McIntyre said.

The wild dog is believed to have been the only canine living in the New Guinea highlands, which meant the animal did not interbreed with other species. They’ve been called “living fossils” as a result — possibly a key evolutionary link between modern domesticated dogs and their wild canine ancestors. “It’s like they were frozen in time,” McIntyre said.

He added that the “wildness” of the New Guinea singing dog is what sets it apart from other domesticated dogs. “They are as ‘undog-like’ as you could imagine,” he said. “They’re somewhere between a cat and a monkey in terms of their dexterity. They are comparable to a family dog as far as affection goes and can be trained, even to be service animals, but they still haven’t lost that wild streak. There are just some things that can’t be domesticated out of them — and that’s actually what a lot of people love about them.”

But with so many offspring from just eight original animals, the singing dogs that are in captivity today are “highly inbred,” McIntyre said. Among dog enthusiasts and singing dog owners, there’s thus been a desire to find ways to increase their genetic diversity while maintaining their purebred line. That’s prompted some interest in finding more of their wild counterparts in New Guinea — but for decades, the animal has remained elusive.

Twenty years, two photos 

In 1989, Australian mammalogist and paleontologist Tim Flannery took a single photograph of a wild New Guinea singing dog in the Star Mountains of western Papua New Guinea. It’s believed to be the first photo ever taken of the animal in the wild ― and would represent the last time the animal was conclusively spotted for almost 30 years. 

Expeditions in the 1990s searching for the dog came up mostly empty. At least one — the 1996 trip taken by McIntyre — suggested the animal did still roam the highlands. McIntyre said he found feces that may have been left by the animal and local villagers told him they’d seen glimpses of the dog, though rarely. McIntyre, however, wasn’t able to conclusively confirm the dog’s existence and didn’t catch sight of the animal himself. 

Sixteen years later, in 2012, Tom Hewitt, director of Adventure Alternative Borneo, captured a single photograph of what appeared to be a wild dog in Indonesia’s Papua province, which encompasses the western half of New Guinea. It was a faraway shot and blurry, however, and ultimately also not considered solid evidence.

Every dog has its day

Finally, on a rainy day last September, while climbing a mountain in Papua province in New Guinea, MacIntyre found himself staring — with mounting glee — at an unmistakable paw print in the mud.

In the end, I didn’t find the New Guinea highland wild dog,” McIntyre said. “They found me.”

Two decades after his first attempt to find the wild canine, McIntyre — who for years had unsuccessfully tried to raise funding to make a return visit — had finally made it back to the South Pacific island for a second search attempt. 

When he arrived on the island, again traveling on his own dime, he unexpectedly met some researchers from the University of Papua who were also keen to search for the island’s enigmatic wild dog. Together, they traveled into the remote highlands in search of the creature.

But the conditions, said McIntyre, weren’t in their favor. It rained incessantly for weeks and “was miserable,” he said. “We went many, many, many days without seeing any signs of the dog.”

But near the end of his planned monthlong stay in Papua, McIntyre and his team caught a break.

While climbing one day in a terraced valley lined with “beautiful zebra rocks,” McIntyre played the sounds of coyote howls through a speaker in an attempt to attract the dogs. He and his team saw nothing on the ascent, but as they climbed down, McIntyre spotted something in the mud. Right next to the footprints they’d recently left were fresher prints: a dog’s prints.

“The animals had heard my audio calls and had come behind us to investigate,” McIntyre said. “This was the moment ― the first verification that there were dogs recently in these mountains.”

Over the next few days, McIntyre deployed 12 camera traps in five different spots in the area. “It was the eleventh hour,” he said. “It was getting toward the end of my trip. I figured, if there are dogs up here, this was the time for me to find them.”

Finally, on the day before he was scheduled to leave, McIntyre went out to collect the cameras. Two were duds, but the other 10 ― he’d hit the mother lode.

“They were full of pictures,” McIntyre said. “We got ‘em.”

In all, the cameras captured more than 140 photographs of at least 15 wild dogs, including males, pregnant females and puppies. The images not only confirm the existence of the wild dogs on New Guinea, said McIntyre, but they also suggest a healthy and robust population.

“The discovery and confirmation of the [highland wild dog] for the first time in over half a century is not only exciting but an incredible opportunity for science,” the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation said on its website, celebrating the finding. The organization was established by McIntyre and a team of other scientists last year to promote further research into the animal.

“There is nothing known about the natural history of these dogs in the wild,” McIntyre said. “Everything we know is from the captive population and while that’s good for comparison, you can’t project that to dogs in the wild.”

The photos offer some insights into the dogs’ behavior in the wild and their social hierarchies, he said. But more research needs to be done to fully understand these creatures. For one, DNA testing of fecal samples taken from the camera trap sites are still being analyzed to determine the possible genetic link between the wild dogs and the captive New Guinea singing dogs. In the meantime, McIntyre and his team have referred to the wild animals seen in the photographs as New Guinea highland wild dogs to differentiate them from the captive population.

“If these dogs are the same, we absolutely need to get the wild population genetics to the captive population,” McIntyre said.

He added that further study of the dogs and their history could reveal much about the evolution of the South Pacific region. 

With confirmation of the dog’s existence, McIntyre said interest and funding for research into the animal has suddenly burgeoned. He’s planning a trip back to New Guinea soon in the hopes of collecting more data ― and seeing the dog himself with his own eyes. 

“For a scientist to stumble upon something like this, it’s the kind of thing you dream about,” McIntyre said. “It’s very exciting.” 

As for the intersexual pigs who started this whole journey, McIntyre said he still hasn’t given up on them. 

He’s currently seeking backing from academic institutions to allow him to return to Vanuatu to continue his research. In the country’s northern islands, selective inbreeding has resulted in an unusually large incidence of pigs that are genetically male but that have external genitalia that are predominantly female ― a very rare condition known as male pseudohermaphroditism. 

These animals, said McIntyre, could hold the secret to preventing boar taint, the unpleasant odor and taste of pork that comes from uncastrated male pigs. Most male pigs reared for pork are castrated at a young age because of boar taint. McIntyre said finding a “vaccination” for the phenomenon could revolutionize the pork industry ― and he believes the answer might lie in the genetics of Vanuatu’s hermaphrodite pigs that are male but don’t have boar taint due to a defect in their testosterone pathway.

“At the age of 62, I believe good things are starting to coming to me now,” he said earlier this month. “It seems the hard work and perseverance are going to pay off.” 

 

Dominique Mosbergen is a reporter at The Huffington Post covering climate change, extreme weather and extinction. Send tips or feedback to dominique.mosbergen@huffingtonpost.com or follow her on Twitter


type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related Coverage + articlesList=58807961e4b02c1837e9cf7f,58dbc7d3e4b01ca7b428cfae,57ea396de4b0c2407cd953fb

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

April 24, 2017 at 11:28PM

http://ift.tt/2oEhClw

from Dominique Mosbergen

http://ift.tt/2oEhClw