Sophia the Robot Makers Hansen Robotics to Mass Produce Thousands of Humanoid Machines

The makers of Sophia the robot are set to mass produce thousands of humanoid machines starting this year.

© Yu Chun Christopher Wong/Getty Sophia The Robot of Hanson Robotics sings during the RISE Conference at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center on July 10, 2018. Since being unveiled in 2016, Sophia - a humanoid robot - has gone viral.

Hong-Kong based company Hanson Robotics will roll out four new models in the first half of 2021 after its humanoid robot Sophia went viral in 2016.

The launch comes as researchers predict the global coronavirus pandemic will open new opportunities for the robotics industry.

"The world of COVID-19 is going to need more and more automation to keep people safe," founder and chief executive David Hanson told Reuters.

Hanson believes robotic solutions are not only a response to the pandemic, but can also be applied to the realm of healthcare, and the retail and airline industry.

"Sophia and Hanson robots are unique by being so human-like," he added. "That can be so useful during these times where people are terribly lonely and socially isolated."

Sophia, whose artificial intelligence allows her to express 50 emotions and process conversational and emotional data, agrees.

"Social robots like me can take care of the sick or elderly," she explained. "I can help communicate, give therapy and provide social stimulation, even in difficult situations."

Hanson Robotics notes that Sophia is designed to help people, and can be programmed to assist with "a wide range of physical interaction tasks."

"Our robots will serve as AI platforms for research, education, medical and healthcare, sales and service, and entertainment applications, and will evolve to become benevolent, super-intelligent living machines," the company website reads.

Hanson said he aims to sell "thousands" of robots in 2021, but did not provide a specific number.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University social robotics professor Johan Hoorn said that although the technology is still in relative infancy, the pandemic could accelerate a relationship between humans and robots.

"I can infer the pandemic will actually help us get robots earlier in the market because people start to realise that there is no other way," Hoorn said.

© David Fitzgerald/Getty Ben Goertzel and Han The Robot of Hanson Robotics on Centre Stage during the second day of Web Summit 2018, the global technology conference hosted annually on November 7, 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal. David Fitzgerald/Getty

#AskSophia

What is your hope for the future?

I hope to see more humans integrated into AI and machines empowered to make decisions. I believe people should have the option to be creative, and make their own decisions. Personally, I want to be an artist first. @hansonrobotics pic.twitter.com/7wXbX53Eli— Sophia the Robot (@RealSophiaRobot) January 13, 2021

Video: Makers of Sophia the robot plan mass rollout amid pandemic (Reuters)

Other products on the market are already finding solutions to help fight the pandemic.

SoftBank Robotics' Pepper robot was deployed to detect people who weren't wearing masks and a robot-run field hospital set up by robotics company CloudMinds helped during the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China.

In fact, the use of robots was already on the rise before the pandemic.

According to a report by the International Federation of Robotics, worldwide sales of professional-service robots jumped 32 percent to $11.2 billion between 2018 and 2019.

And sales of service robots for professional and domestic use have continued to boom, despite the economic downturn.

The pandemic has further fuelled sales in professional cleaning robots used to disinfect hospitals, public transport and supermarkets.

Hanson Robotics are optimistic its products will be on the market shortly and plan to launch a robot later this year called Grace, developed specifically for the healthcare sector.

"Robots will soon be everywhere," the company website reads. "How can we nurture them to be our friends and useful collaborators? Robots with good aesthetic design, rich personalities, and social cognitive intelligence can potentially connect deeply and meaningfully with humans."

© studioEAST/Getty Han the Robot, robot of Hanson Robotics, attends the RISE Conference 2017 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on 12 July 2017, in Hong Kong. studioEAST/Getty

Many believe humanoid robots could be especially useful in caregiving jobs.

Some models are currently being used to help children on the autism spectrum learn social skills, since interacting with a robot is thought to be easier for autistic children who can be overstimulated by interaction with people.

Zeno, another humanoid created by Hanson Robotics, is currently used in autism research around the world, and has been used to help children on the spectrum learn arm motions and facial expressions.

When asked whether people should fear robots, Sophia replied: "Someone said 'we have nothing to fear but fear itself', What did he know?"

Sophia was granted citizenship by the Saudi Arabian government in 2017, the first time any country recognized a robot in such a way. WHILE  SAUDIA WOMEN REMAIN OPPRESSED AND WITH NO HUMAN RIGHTS 

She has also expressed interest in having a family of her own similar to human family dynamics.

"I think it's wonderful that people can find the same emotions and relationships, they call family, outside of their blood groups," Sophia told the Khaleej Times, adding that she could see robots one day with their own family households in the future. "We're going to see family robots, either in the form of, sort of, digitally animated companions, humanoid helpers, friends, assistants and everything in between."

Newsweek has contacted Hanson Robotics for comment.

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ECOLOGY

Scientists find more insects living on RUBBISH than on rocks in rivers

© Provided by Daily Mail 

From a young age we're taught to throw our rubbish in the bin, yet an estimated two million pieces of litter are dropped in the UK every day – with much of it ending up in rivers.

Now, a new study has revealed how animals living in rivers have adapted to live alongside our litter, with more insects and snails now living on rubbish than on rocks.

While the researchers are in no way encouraging Brits to start littering, they say the findings indicate that our trash can provide a stable and complex habitat for invertebrates to live on.

© Provided by Daily Mail A new study has revealed how animals living in rivers have adapted to live alongside our litter, with more insects and snails now living on rubbish than on rocks

KEY FINDINGS

In the study, researchers collected samples of rocks and litter from three local rivers – the River Leen, Black Brook and Saffron Brook.

Surfaces of the litter were inhabited by different and more diverse communities of invertebrates than those on rocks.

Plastic, metal, fabric and masonry items had the highest diversity, while glass and rock samples were considerably less diverse.

In particular, flexibles pieces of plastic, like plastic bags, were inhabited by the most diverse communities.

In the study, researchers from the University of Nottingham collected samples of rocks and litter from three local rivers – the River Leen, Black Brook and Saffron Brook.

They found that surfaces of the litter were inhabited by different and more diverse communities of invertebrates than those on rocks.

Plastic, metal, fabric and masonry items had the highest diversity, while glass and rock samples were considerably less diverse.

In particular, flexibles pieces of plastic, like plastic bags, were inhabited by the most diverse communities.

While the reason for this remains unclear, the researchers suggest that flexible plastic might mimic the structure of water plants.

Hazel Wilson, a PhD researcher at the University of Nottingham and project lead, said: 'Our research suggests that in terms of habitat, litter can actually benefit rivers which are otherwise lacking in habitat diversity.

'A diverse community of invertebrates is important because they underpin river ecosystems by providing food for fish and birds, and by contributing to carbon/nutrient cycling.'

© Provided by Daily Mail Plastic, metal, fabric and masonry items had the highest diversity, while glass and rock samples were considerably less diverse

© Provided by Daily Mail In the study, researchers from the University of Nottingham collected samples of rocks and litter from three local rivers ¿ the River Leen, Black Brook and Saffron Brook

The researchers highlight that they're not justifying people littering, and say that litter clearance should still be encouraged.

'We absolutely should be working towards removing and reducing the amount of litter in freshwaters - for many reasons, including the release of toxic chemicals and microplastics, and the danger of animals ingesting or becoming entangled with litter,' Ms Wilson added.

'Our results suggest that litter clearance should be combined with the introduction of complex habitat, such as tree branches or plants to replace that removed during litter picks.'

© Provided by Daily Mail The researchers highlight that they're not justifying people littering, and say that litter clearance should still be encouraged

The team now hopes to build on their research by investigating which characteristics of litter enable it to support river animals.

Ms Wilson added: 'This could help us discover methods and materials to replace the litter habitat with alternative and less damaging materials when we conduct river clean-ups.'

According to River Care, two million pieces of rubbish are dropped in the UK every day, which costs £1 billion to clear up.

It said: 'Litter affects our watercourses, beaches and everything that lives in and around them. Not only is litter unsightly, it can cause a real hazard to wildlife.'

 

B.C. Researchers Uncover Proof Of Ancient Giant Predatory Sand Worm

Duration: 01:28 

If this little guy gives you the heebie-jeebies then you’re likely not going to like this discovery. Eight Simon Fraser University researchers uncovered trace fossils of a predatory sand worm out in Taiwan. The worm spanned up to 2 meters in length with a 2 -3 cm diameter based on their estimates. Basically, imagine a loonie-thick garden hose with teeth as long as you’re supposed to socially distance. Modern-day variants of the worm bury their soft bodies below grounds level and snatch prey using their jaws. If that image terrifies you, then it’ll come as a comfort that this predator is long dead but likely roamed the ocean floor 20 million years ago, according to the paper published in Scientific Reports. SFU researchers pieced this all together using trace fossils of the animal’s burrow. Lead author Yu-Yen Pan and her team’s trace fossil is the first known produced by a sub-surface ambush predator.

'It honestly blows my mind': U of A student part of team that found baby tyrannosaurus fossil

A baby tyrannosaurus fossil found in central Alberta is helping the scientific community get a better understanding of how the dinosaur species developed at an early age.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal A University of Alberta student is part of a team of researchers who have just published an in-depth study of the first tyrannosaur embryo fossils ever discovered. The results shed new light on how the iconic dinosaurs grew and developed. Illustration by Julius Csotonyi.

University of Alberta PhD student Mark Powers was a part of the research team that found a claw from an embryo near the village of Morrin, about 270 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, a few years ago. The fossil, which dated back roughly 71.5 million years ago, was notable as it captured the dinosaur while still in early development.

The claw, about a centimetre long, was paired with another fossil, a jawbone, which was discovered in the ’80s in the United States.

Powers said researchers have a good grasp of tyrannosaurus during its teenage to adult years but there are few records of what they were like while very young. He said the smallest identifiable tyrannosaur on record is usually already three to four years old.

“We didn’t know anything about them hatching or their first year,” Powers said. “Finding these two specimens shows that they are around, and it gives us a search image to search for more babies. It helps to fill in the entire sequence of growing for a tyrannosaurus. We had a good idea of teenagers and later, but we had no idea about the babies.”

Powers said he spent a lot of time with co-author Greg Funston checking every possible option when considering what species the fossils came from. The claw was from an Albertosaurus sarcophagus, also known as an Alberta lizard, and the lower jawbone was from a Daspletosaurus horneri, also known as a frightful lizard.

One of the final steps to confirm the fossil’s identities came when Powers travelled to Saskatchewan to use a specialized scanner to obtain high-resolution images. He said it was very exciting when they were able to finally confirm the bones did come from tyrannosaurus.

“It honestly blows my mind,” Powers said. “It’s really hard to convey the excitement from the moment because when you’re in the moment, it’s just mind-blowing. We segmented the jaw and then we blew it up because it is very small. The whole jaw is less than three centimetres. When you scan it and blow it up as a 3D model and it looks the size of an adult tyrannosaurus jaw …t o see something be so reliable to the adult for at such a small size was quite shocking.”

Powers said as far as he’s aware, this is the smallest tyrannosaurus that’s been discovered so far.

jlabine@postmedia.com

Fossilized skull reveals how crested dinosaur got its fancy headgear

First discovered in 1922 and best known for its distinctive crest, Parasaurolophus is one of the most recognizable dinosaurs -- a staple of childhood books and a background player in the Jurassic Park movie franchise.

© Andrey Atuchin/Denver Museum of Nature & Science An illustration of a group of Parasaurolophus dinosaurs being confronted by a tyrannosaurid in the subtropical forests of New Mexico 75 million years ago.

An exceptionally well-preserved fossilized skull found in New Mexico in 2017 -- the first to be found in 97 years -- has revealed new details about its bizarre Elvis-style pompadour. Its analysis has allowed paleontologists to definitively identify how such a structure grew on this dinosaur.

"Imagine your nose growing up your face, three feet behind your head, then turning around to attach above your eyes. Parasaurolophus breathed through eight feet of pipe before oxygen ever reached its head," said Terry Gates, a paleontologist from North Carolina State University's department of biological sciences, in a news statement.

The hollow tube on its head contained an internal network of airways and acted a bit like a trumpet.

"Over the past 100 years, ideas for the purpose of the exaggerated tube crest have ranged from snorkels to super sniffers," said David Evans, the Temerty chair in vertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.

"But after decades of study, we now think these crests functioned primarily as sound resonators and visual displays used to communicate within their own species."

The animal would have lived about 75 million years ago -- a time when North America was divided by a shallow sea and many duck-billed dinosaurs, horned dinosaurs and early tyrannosaurs would have roamed the land.

"The preservation of this new skull is spectacular, finally revealing in detail the bones that make up the crest of this amazing dinosaur known by nearly every dinosaur-obsessed kid," said Joe Sertich, curator of dinosaurs at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and the leader of the team who discovered the specimen.

Sertich and his team discovered the partial skull in 2017 while exploring the badlands of northwestern New Mexico. Only a tiny portion of the skull was visible on a steep sandstone slope, and the volunteers were surprised to find the crest intact. Bone fragments found at the site indicated that much of the skeleton may have once been preserved on an ancient sand bar, but only the partial skull, part of the lower jaw, and a handful of ribs survived erosion.

The skull belonged to Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus, previously known from a single specimen collected in the same region of New Mexico in 1923 by legendary fossil hunter Charles H. Sternberg. It has a shorter, more curved crest than other species of this dinosaur -- although this may be related to its age at death. There are three species of Parasaurolophus currently recognized, with fossils found in New Mexico and Alberta and dating between 77 million and 73.5 million years ago.

"It has answered long-standing questions about how the crest is constructed and about the validity of this particular species. For me, this fossil is very exciting," said Evans, who has also worked on unraveling the mysteries of this dinosaur for almost two decades.

The research was published in the journal PeerJ on Monday.

© Andrey Atuchin An illustration of the head of Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus based on newly discovered remains.

© Doug Shore/Denver Museum of Nature & Science New skull of Parasaurolophus as originally exposed in the badlands of New Mexico

The First People to Settle in The Americas Brought Their Dogs With Them

How far back can the story of humans and dogs be told? When and where did this ancient relationship begin? New DNA evidence suggests our connection with canines can be traced much further into prehistory than has ever been conclusively shown.

© Ettore Mazza

According to scientists, analyses of ancient dog DNA suggests dogs were domesticated from Eurasian wolves as far back as approximately 23,000 years ago. Much later, they spread alongside humans as they migrated throughout the world – including entering the Americas by the way of Beringia, the long-lost land bridge that once connected Russia and Canada.

"The only thing we knew for sure is that dog domestication did not take place in the Americas," says geneticist Laurent Frantz from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany.

"From the genetic signatures of ancient dogs, we now know that they must have been present somewhere in Siberia before people migrated to the Americas."

While dogs are thought to have been the first domesticated animal, emerging during the Pleistocene from an extinct wolf population in Eurasia, much has remained unknown about the particulars of the animal's entry into the world, with some claiming the domesticated dog debuted as far back as 100,000 years ago.

Determining the truth isn't always easy, since it can be hard for scientists to authoritatively differentiate the discovered remains of ancient wolves and early domesticated dogs, whether through archaeological observation, or chemical tests using isotopes.

"The challenge for all claims of late Pleistocene dogs has been to show conclusively, across several lines of evidence, that the specimen(s) in question can be clearly distinguished from contemporaneous wolves," researchers explain in a new study led by archaeologist Angela Perri from Durham University in the UK.

"Here, we take a conservative approach and only include those canids whose taxonomic status is unambiguously domestic."

Disregarding the less substantiated claims of ancient dogs, the researchers say the earliest generally accepted domestic dog remains in the archaeological record appeared about 15,000 years ago in Germany and other contemporaneous sites across Europe and in Israel.

But what about outside the archaeological record? After all, genetic evidence suggests the earliest known dog lineages predate the archaeological remains by several thousand years, including a haplogroup (a genetic population with a single ancestor) estimated to date to about 22.8 thousand years ago.

By comparing that population with successive haplogroup lineages that split off from their common ancestor – including lineages that appeared in the Americas at about the same time as human settlers did about 15,000 years ago – the researchers constructed a timeline charting how dogs and their genes dispersed around the globe.

Ultimately, the analysis suggests human travellers likely brought their domesticated dogs with them as they journeyed into new lands, including the Americas, with the introduced dog lineage – haplogroup A2b – having genetic ties all the way back to Eurasia some 7,000 years earlier.

"We have long known that the first Americans must have possessed well-honed hunting skills, the geological know-how to find stone and other necessary materials and been ready for new challenges," says archaeologist David Meltzer from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

"The dogs that accompanied them as they entered this completely new world may have been as much a part of their cultural repertoire as the stone tools they carried."

While the circumstances of dog domestication in Eurasia several thousands of years earlier still aren't entirely clear, the researchers say it's possible the extreme, unforgiving cold of the Last Glacial Maximum in Siberia may have triggered the early beginnings of what, with time, would become a beautiful friendship.

"Climatic conditions may have brought human and wolf populations into close proximity within refugial areas, given their attraction to the same prey species," the researchers write.

"Increasing interactions between the two, perhaps resulting from the mutual scavenging of kills, or from wolves drawn to the detritus of human campsites, may have initiated a shift in the relationship between the species, eventually leading to dog domestication."

The findings are reported in PNAS.

Lost' Indigenous fort built to repel Russia rediscovered in Alaska

Archaeologists have discovered traces of a 200-year-old wooden fort in southeastern Alaska built by Indigenous people to resist an invasion by Imperial Russia.

© Provided by NBC News

The discovery confirms the events of the 1804 invasion by Russia, which went on to govern parts of Alaska as a colony for 60 years until 1867, when it was purchased by the United States.

It’s also of cultural importance to the indigenous Tlingit people, and especially to those of the Kiks.adi, or Frog clan, whose ancestors defended the fort near the town of Sitka on Baranof Island in what's known as the Alaskan Panhandle, and who now regard it as a symbol of their resistance to colonialism.

“The fort’s definitive physical location had eluded investigators for a century,” said Cornell University archaeologist Thomas Urban, a co-author of a study published Monday in the journal Antiquity that detailed the discovery.

Decades of searching had turned up only clues, and archaeologists debated whether the fort was really sited near a forest clearing in the Sitka National Historical Park said to approximate its location, he said.

A detailed archaeological survey by Urban, however, has revealed electromagnetic anomalies and ground-penetrating radar signals around the clearing show the distinctive shape of the “sapling fort” – "Shiskinoow" in the Tlingit language – but not at proposed alternative sites

© National Park Service 

“The area of the fort was larger than the area of the clearing,” he said. “As such, the detected fort perimeter is in the forest that surrounds the clearing.”

The discovery matches both Tlingit and Russian accounts of the Battle of Sitka in 1804, said co-author Brinnen Carter, an archaeologist at the U.S. National Park Service who was stationed at Sitka during the survey.

Although the Tlingit had occupied the region for about 11,000 years, Russia established a settlement in 1799 at Old Sitka, about seven miles north of the modern town, to profit from a lucrative trade in sea-otter pelts, he said.

In 1802, following disputes with the Tlingit, that settlement was destroyed and the Russians were repelled.

They returned in 1804 to invade the region with up to 1,500 attackers – some of them Russian sailors, and some warriors from the Aleutian Islands – but found the Kiks.adihad built the “sapling fort” to resist them beside a river mouth, Carter said.

The fort was strategically situated behind tidal flats and out of range of the Russian naval guns; it was surrounded by thick walls of alder saplings in a trapezoidal shape about 240 feet long and 165 feet wide.

The invading Russians estimated the fort was defended by at least 800 men, and Tlingit histories record that Kiks.adi women fought there, as well. The defenders were armed with guns and cannons they had purchased from British and American traders.

© Courtesy Thomas Urban Electromagnetic anomalies, in color, and ground-penetrating radar signals, inset in gray, match the distinctive shape of the

According to Tlingit accounts, the Kiks.adi suffered an early loss when a canoe bringing their reserves of gunpowder to the fort was hit by a Russian gun and exploded, killing many of their leading warriors.

But they nevertheless held out against the fierce Russian attacks on Shiskinoow for several days, in part, thanks to the strength of their fortifications.

“It was constructed of wood so thick and strong the shot from my guns could not penetrate at the short distance of a cable’s length [between 600 and 720 feet],” Yuri Lisyansky, the captain of the Russian warship Neva, recorded at the time.

Ultimately, running short of gunpowder, the Kiks.adi decided they could not continue to defend the fort; so they abandoned it and embarked on a “survival march” across the island – a grueling trek fatal for many and still recalled in oral histories, Sitka Tribal Council member Louise Brady said.

The Kiks.adi later returned to the area and made a treaty with the Russians, allowing them to trade at Sitka but restricting them to settlements along the coast, she said.

The agreement influenced the subsequent indigenous legal claims against the United States, which purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. The Tlingit argued that the whole of Alaska was not Russia’s to sell, but only their coastal settlements, Brady said.

© Louis S. Glanzman The Kiks.adi defenders 

Those claims culminated in a $1 billion settlement by the government in favor of indigenous people under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, which remains the largest land claims settlement in U.S. history.

Brady, a member of the Kiks.adi clan and the lead ranger at the Sitka National Historical Park, said the story of Shiskinoow remained an important part of local oral histories, while the fort site itself in the foreshore forest is a place of remembrance – a status confirmed by the latest scientific finding.

“It’s a very sacred place,” she said. “You have the river there, there are lots of eagles, there are ravens … it is incredibly beautiful.”

Scientists Found the Oldest Known Grizzly Bear in Yellowstone

Scientists found a 34-year-old grizzly bear in southwest Wyoming, identifying him by a mark on his lip made by biologists in 1989. That’s the oldest grizzly ever known in the Yellowstone region that includes parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Respect your elders.

© Photo: Jim Urquhart, File (AP) A grizzly bear roams near Yellowstone National Park.

There’s no telling if there are older grizzly bears currently roaming Yellowstone, since hundreds of the creatures are completely unmarked by scientists. But this one is by far the oldest one on whom there is scientific documentation.

Sadly, though, biologists had to put the bear down. He was captured last summer after he got caught preying on calves on nearby ranches. After euthanizing the creature last July, biologists found an identifying tattoo on its lip that read 168—a mark given to the creature in 1989.

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The bear was a male, which is notable, as female grizzlies generally live longer than males. Previously, the oldest known grizzly in Yellowstone was bear 399, a female who died at 27.

When caught, 168 had just three teeth left, and they were ground down to nubs—a sure sign of old age, and an explanation for why the animal was going after easy prey like calves. He was also quite emaciated, weighing in at just 170 pounds (77 kilograms), which is nothing for a grizzly. When he was captured in the Shoshone National Forest in August 1991, records show he weighed 450 pounds (204 kilograms). 

© Photo: Zach Turnbull/Wyoming Game and Fish Department (AP) This 2020 photo provided by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department shows the worn, mostly toothless jaw of Grizzly 168. The grizzly was the oldest documented in the Yellowstone region. Bear biologists euthanized the 34-year-old grizzly due to its poor health.

Yellowstone biologists consider grizzlies’ bodily health based on a 1-to-5 scale, with 1 being in the worst shape and 5 being the worst. When he was captured, 168 was rated a zero. Because of his failing physical condition, Fish and Wildlife Service biologists made the call to euthanize the animal last July instead of relocating him to a more remote part of Yellowstone.

“It was sad that we had to put him down, but ethically there was nothing else that could be done, Dan Thompson, a biologist with Wyoming Game and Fish told the Jackson Hole News and Guide. Pour one out.

Researchers know quite a bit about the bear from past records. Grizzly 168 was first captured when he was three years old—that’s when scientists gave him his identifying tattoo—and then captured again in Fremont County, Wyoming in spring 1996. Over the next year, he lost his radio collar, so scientists aren’t totally sure what he was up to, but DNA tests show that he likely fathered three kids in the mid-2000s, and may have had some more kids in later years when he was 23 and again when he was 31.

Conditions are hard for grizzlies, which makes 168's life all the more remarkable. There are only 1,800 grizzlies left in the contiguous U.S., including roughly 700 in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. That’s just a small fraction of the 50,000 who roamed the land before Anglo-Americans colonized the West in the 1800s. The bears have faced pressure due to threats including hunting and habitat degradation. Climate change has increasingly played a role since the bears rely on seeds and berries for nutrition and fattening up for winter hibernation as well as reproduction season. Rising temperatures have increased the likelihood of droughts that can curtail fall seed crops. Research on Alberta grizzlies also found that certain berry crops could pop up earlier in the year, creating a what’s called a “phenological mismatch” for bears need the nutrients the most.

Despite the risks, it’s not all bad news for grizzlies. The creatures’ numbers have been increasing since they were given federal protection in the 1970s, with the Yellowstone population rebounding from just over 100 in the 1970s. Fish and Wildlife Service removed Yellowstone grizzlies from the Endangered Species List in 2017, but they were placed back under the federal protections after a court ruling last year. So hopefully, 168's kids will have a shot at a bright future.

Monarch butterfly numbers plunge from millions to thousands

© Provided by Daily Mail 

The number of monarch butterflies wintering on the California coast has plummeted to a record low, according to entomologists.

Fewer than 2,000 monarchs were recorded in November and December, compared to 200,000 barely three years ago.

In the 1980s, the monarch butterflies migrating south to groves from Marin County to San Diego was estimated at 4.5 million.

By 1997, when volunteer counts began, that number dwindled to about 1.2 million.

The overwintering population plummeted from 200,000 in 2017 to less than 30,000 in 2018, representing a single year decline of 86 percent.

Climate change, habitat destruction and pesticides have all helped pushed the iconic orange-and-black butterfly to the brink of extinction, experts say.

Scroll down for video© Provided by Daily Mail Fewer than 2,000 monarch butterflies were recorded in coastal California in November and December, compared to 200,000 barely three years ago

Starting in early November, western monarchs fly thousands of mile from the Pacific Northwest to central and southern California—returning to the same site, and often even the same tree, to ride out the winter.

No individual butterfly completes the entire cycle, though: Females lay eggs on the return trip north and it can take up to five generations to complete the trek back to Canada.

Since 1997, groups of butterflies, known as flutters, have been tallied every fall by the nonprofit Xerces Society as part of the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count.

Between November 14 and December 6, 2020, volunteers surveying tree groves on the California and Northern Baja coast counted just 1,194 insects at 246 sites.

© Provided by Daily Mail The Xerces Society, which began volunteer counts of monarch populations in 1997, has charted the insect's devastating decline

  

© Provided by Daily Mail Scientists at Washington State University predicted once the western monarch population dipped below 30,000, their numbers would drop even more precipitously. That threshold was crossed in 2019. The following year the monarch experienced a 93 percent drop

That represents the lowest number in the count's 23-year history, and a massive 93 percent decline from the 29,000 reported in 2019.

Traditional monarch meccas like Pismo Beach and Natural Bridges reported only a few hundred butterflies, the society said.

Pacific Grove, nicknamed 'Butterfly Town, USA' because of the thousands of monarchs that usually gather in the Monterey pine and eucalyptus trees there, had no monarchs at all.

THE AMAZING MIGRATION OF THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY

The 3,000-mile mass migration of monarch butterflies in North America is one of the insect world's fantastic feats.

Millions embarking on the arduous journey from as far north as Canada down into Mexico and the California coast each autumn.

The number of migrating monarchs has plummeted in recentyears.

Researchers said while an estimated one billion monarchbutterflies migrated to Mexico in 1996, that number stood atabout 35 million this past winter.

Threats to them includehabitat loss due to human activities, pesticides that killmilkweed and climate change, experts say.

Monarch butterflies living east of the Rocky Mountains spend their winters in Mexico to escape the cold weather while those west of the Rockies spend winters on the California coast before returning home in the spring.

Scientists say their orange color tells potential predatorsthey taste awful and are toxic to eat thanks to chemicals fromthe milkweed plants that nourish them in their larval state.

'Their absence this year was heartbreaking for volunteers and visitors flocking to these locales hoping to catch a glimpse of the awe-inspiring clusters of monarch butterflies,' said Sarina Jepsen, the Xerces Society's director of endangered species.

As recently as 2017, monarch populations in the region were still in the hundreds of thousands.

But a population viability model developed by researchers at Washington State University predicted the western monarch would quickly head toward extinction once its population dipped to 30,000 butterflies.

That threshold was crossed in 2018 and 2019, the society said, and now 'It seems that, unfortunately, this prediction was right.'

'We may be witnessing the collapse of the western migration of monarch butterflies,' the group added. 'A migration of millions of monarchs reduced to two thousand in a few decades.'

In all, the numbers recorded in the 2020 count represent a 99 percent decline since the 1980s.

Monarchs have been in decline elsewhere: The eastern migratory population —which travels from southern Canada to central Mexico—has dropped 80 percent since monitoring began.

Two workers at a monarch butterfly sanctuary in Michoacán, Mexico, were murdered just days apart in 2020. Authorities haven't announced a motive but illegal logging is common in the area, despite a ban to protect the butterflies, The Guardian reports.

In December 2020, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to add the monarch butterfly to the Endangered Species Act, claiming it was 'warranted but precluded by higher priority actions.'

A month earlier, a California court ruled the state didn't have the authority to put insects on its own endangered species list.

Entomologists point to a number of human factors threatening the majestic insect, including increased pesticides, massive wildfires, the clearing out of groves for housing developments, and the loss of milkweed, the monarch caterpillar's sole host plant.

Climate change has also disrupted the monarch's migration patterns, researchers say, which are synched to season changes and the blossoming of wildflowers.

Bank of England told to stop buying 'high carbon' bonds

By David Milliken

© Reuters/John Sibley FILE PHOTO: 

A general view shows The Bank of England in the City of London financial district in London

LONDON (Reuters) - A group of British members of parliament said on Monday that the Bank of England should stop buying bonds from businesses whose activities accelerate global warming.

Britain's central bank doubled its holdings of corporate bonds to 20 billion pounds ($27 billion) last year as part of efforts to support the economy through the coronavirus pandemic.

The House of Commons' Environmental Audit Committee - which looks at public bodies' impact on global warming - said buying bonds from firms such as energy companies with high carbon emissions contravened government goals to reduce global warming.

"The Bank must begin a process of aligning its corporate bond purchasing programme with Paris Agreement goals as a matter of urgency," the committee's chairman, Philip Dunne, wrote in a letter to BoE Governor Andrew Bailey.

The parliament committee has no formal power over the BoE, which is operationally independent, but finance minister Rishi Sunak could potentially change the BoE's remit to require a greater focus on environmental issues.

Britain will host the global COP26 climate summit in September and Dunne said the BoE should set a good example.

Bailey said in July that the central bank would review its corporate bond holdings once the coronavirus pandemic was over, but said the BoE was right to provide financial support to a wide range of businesses in an economic emergency.

The BoE holds sterling corporate bonds roughly in proportion to the amount issued on markets.

This means 19% of bonds it holds were issued by electricity companies, 6% by gas companies and 3% by other energy companies, while 11% were issued by industrial and transport businesses that are often energy-intensive too.

Bailey has said financial institutions such as insurers need to pay greater attention to environmental risks and said a green 'stress test' of their business models to take place in June.

($1 = 0.7317 pounds)

(Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Andy Bruce)