Experts thrilled after rare creature unexpectedly appears on hidden camera: 'Particularly remarkable'
Pune Pulse reported that a rare Indian pangolin was spotted in the grasslands of Pune, India, by a camera trap, surprising researchers.
"Spotting a pangolin in such an environment is particularly remarkable, and the Forest Department welcomes this discovery," said Tushar Chavan, deputy conservator of forests for the Pune Wildlife Division.
The camera trapping was scientifically driven. Researchers are studying the population status of animals in the area to evaluate the health of the habitat.
Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty?
Definitely
Only in some areas
No way
I'm not sure
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.
Pangolins are among the most trafficked wild mammals. They are sought after in the illegal wildlife trade, primarily in China and Southeast Asia, for their scales, which are falsely believed to have medicinal properties. Their meat is also considered a delicacy in some areas, which further fuels poaching.
The images confirm that pangolins may be more widespread than previously thought, which is great news. However, Rushikesh Chavan, head of The Habitats Trust, reminded us that pangolins are among the most hunted species, adding, "Conservation efforts, such as these camera-trapping initiatives, are crucial for their survival."
Conserving animals and plants is critical to balanced ecosystems and biodiversity, as each species contributes to the health of the environment. Imbalance can be the result of poaching, pollution, or the introduction of an invasive species. This affects human health because it can impact air quality as well as food and water sources. It can also lead to the rapid spread of disease if a disease-carrying species is not kept in check.
Supporting conservation efforts is valuable locally and globally.
The spotting of the pangolin is especially exciting because it was so unexpected in the dry grasslands. This is prompting researchers to look deeper into the adaptability of the species to different environments.
By raising awareness, adhering to stricter law enforcement, and continuing scientific research, the conservationists hope to save the species from extinction.
Mihir Godbole, founder of The Grasslands Trust, said that the discovery "is both surprising and exciting."
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
How your old phone could become a ‘tiny data centre' helping researchers to track marine life
Old phones could have a new chapter as tiny data centres, a new line of research has found. Each year, more than 1.2 billion smartphones are produced globally. Despite the expense to consumers and the environmental toll of producing them, our devices have an increasingly short lifespan as people tend to replace them every two to three years. But rather than gathering dust in a drawer - or adding to the world's mountain of electronic waste - discarded smartphones could be reconfigured for a range of useful green applications. 'Innovation often begins not with something new, but with a new way of thinking about the old, re-imagining its role in shaping the future,' says Huber Flores, Associate Professor of Pervasive Computing at the University of Tartu in Estonia. He is one of several European researchers behind the new study published in the IEEE Pervasive Computing journal. Related 'We don't want to be a niche brand': Seaweed is taking plastic out of stadiums and sandwich boxes This Indian city is using smartwatches to track the impact of increasingly deadly extreme heat Turning outdated smartphones into micro data centres is surprisingly cheap, if you know how. The researchers found that it only costs around €8 to bypass a phone's hardware features and reprogramme it. Firstly, the researchers removed the phones' batteries and replaced them with external power sources to reduce the risk of chemical leakage into the environment, a ScienceDaily report explains. Then, four phones were connected together, fitted with 3D-printed casings and holders, and turned into a working prototype ready to be reused. Related From Scotland to Sweden: How smart cities are helping residents save energy Deep discoveries, landmark lawsuits and rising renewables : Positive environmental stories from 2025 The prototype created by researchers was put to use underwater, where it participated in the monitoring of marine life by helping to count different sea species. Normally, these kinds of tasks require a scuba diver to record video and bring it to the surface for analysis. The prototype meant the whole process could be done automatically underwater. And there are many other ways that a phone's capacity to efficiently process and store data can be put to good use after its WhatsApping days are done. These mini data centres could also be used at bus stops, for example, to collect real-time data on the number of passengers. This could help to optimise public transportation networks. Such smartphone repurposing is just a drop in the ocean of issues that natural resource mining, energy-intensive production and e-waste present. Ultimately, we need to challenge this throwaway culture and move to a more circular model. But the research shows one small way to satisfy demand for computing power with what we've already got. 'Sustainability is not just about preserving the future,' says Ulrich Norbisrath, Associate Professor of Software Engineering at the University of Tartu. 'It's about reimagining the present, where yesterday's devices become tomorrow's opportunities.'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Commercial crew launch delayed while ISS air leak assessed
Concern about a small but persistent air leak in a Russian compartment of the International Space Station has prompted NASA and Axiom Space to indefinitely delay this week's launch of a commercial flight to the orbiting outpost, officials said Thursday. The privately-financed Axiom-4 crew — commander Peggy Whitson, Indian pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, Polish researcher Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Hungarian engineer Tibor Kapu — originally planned to take off Tuesday. But the flight was delayed to the end of the week, first by high winds in the off-shore emergency splashdown zone and then by an oxygen leak in their Falcon 9 rocket's first stage. SpaceX tentatively targeted Thursday and then Friday for launch, with Saturday and Sunday available if needed. But during SpaceX troubleshooting to find and fix the rocket's propellant leak, NASA engineers decided they needed more time to assess recent efforts to plug an air leak aboard the International Space Station in a Russian vestibule known as the PrK. The PrK serves as a passageway between the station's Zvezda module and spacecraft docked at its aft port. "Teams met today and we will not be launching Axiom-4 tomorrow," flight controllers in Houston radioed the ISS. "We are assessing a new launch date. This is due to the ongoing PrK investigation. So I don't have a new launch date right now, but we will not be launching tomorrow and docking Saturday." In a blog post, NASA said cosmonauts aboard the station "recently performed inspections of the pressurized module's interior surfaces, sealed some additional areas of interest, and measured the current leak rate. Following this effort, the segment now is holding pressure." The post went on to say the Axiom-4 delay will provide "additional time for NASA and (the Russian space agency) Roscosmos to evaluate the situation and determine whether any additional troubleshooting is necessary." Launched in July 2000 atop a Russian Proton rocket, Zvezda was the third module to join the growing space station, providing a command center for Russian cosmonauts, crew quarters, the aft docking port and two additional ports now occupied by airlock and research modules. The leakage was first noticed in 2019, and has been openly discussed ever since by NASA during periodic reviews and space station news briefings. The leak rate has varied, but has stayed in the neighborhood of around 1-to-2 pounds per day. "The station is not young," astronaut Mike Barratt said last November during a post flight news conference. "It's been up there for quite a while, and you expect some wear and tear, and we're seeing that in the form of some cracks that have formed." The Russians have made a variety of attempts to patch a suspect crack and other possible sources of leakage, but air has continued to escape into space. In November, Bob Cabana, a former astronaut and NASA manager who chaired the agency's ISS Advisory Committee, said U.S. and Russian engineers "don't have a common understanding of what the likely root cause is, or the severity of the consequences of these leaks." "The Russian position is that the most probable cause of the PrK cracks is high cyclic fatigue caused by micro vibrations," Cabana said. "NASA believes the PrK cracks are likely multi-causal including pressure and mechanical stress, residual stress, material properties and environmental exposures. "The Russians believe that continued operations are safe, but they can't prove to our satisfaction that they are, and the US believes that it's not safe, but we can't prove that to the Russian satisfaction that that's the case." As an interim step, the hatch leading to the PrK and the station's aft docking compartment is closed during daily operations and only opened when the Russians need to unload a visiting Progress cargo ship. And as an added precaution on NASA's part, whenever the hatch to the PrK and docking compartment is open, a hatch between the Russian and U.S. segments of the station is closed. "We've taken a very conservative approach to close a hatch between the US side and the Russian side during those time periods," Barratt said. "It's not a comfortable thing, but it is the best agreement between all the smart people on both sides. And it's something that we crew live with and enact." Cabana said last year that the Russians do not believe "catastrophic disintegration of the PrK is realistic (but) NASA has expressed concerns about the structural integrity of the PrK and the possibility of a catastrophic failure." Video shows Air India plane crashing in Ahmedabad Air India plane crashes shortly after takeoff, carrying more than 240 people An accused woman skips her pedicure, kills her ex-husband
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
ScaleReady Announces a G-Rex® Grant has been awarded to Immuneel Therapeutics
ST. PAUL, Minn., June 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ScaleReady, in collaboration with Wilson Wolf Manufacturing, Bio-Techne Corporation and CellReady, today announced that Immuneel Therapeutics has been awarded a $150,000 G-Rex® Grant to support process development aimed at enhancing the scalability and cost-effectiveness of CAR-T cell manufacturing in India. "The blood cancer burden on India's population is substantial, around 120,000 new cases of lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma are diagnosed each year. Unfortunately, almost 70,000 Indians will die every year from these afflictions, devastating the lives of their families and communities. To afford access to all Indian patients in need, and to capitalize on the immense commercial potential of our pipeline, we need to think prudently and practically about our manufacturing approach. In the short term, our manufacturing demands are almost 200 drug products per day, and this may increase as CAR-T cell therapies move closer to front line treatment. The only practical way for us to industrialize our production and produce a supply of drug product commensurate with total patient demand is to transition to G-Rex," said Dr. Lakshmikanth Gandikota, Head of R&D, MSAT Intellectual Property, and Translational Research, at Immuneel Therapeutics Limited. "We are extremely impressed by the speed, resourcefulness, creativity, discipline, and entrepreneurialism of the team at Immuneel and are happy to see that India, as a whole, is making significant strides toward CAR-T availability. It gives us a great sense of satisfaction to be in a position to help bring hope to cancer patients in India, one G-Rex at a time," said John Wilson, CEO of Wilson Wolf and co-inventor of G-Rex. As part of Immuneel's G-Rex Grant, they will perform process development, qualification, and validation of a G-Rex based CAR-T cell therapy production approach to dramatically increase the throughput capacity of their state-of-the-art, 12,000 square foot GMP facility. Located in Bengaluru and opened in 2021, Immuneel's Integrated Cell Therapy Development and Manufacturing Facility was the first of its kind in India and is designed to bring breakthrough cell and gene therapies to millions of patients in India. Lastly, Immuneel's G-Rex Grant will support the requisite comparability studies necessary to support a post-CAR-T approval manufacturing change from their difficult to scale low throughput all-in-one manufacturing equipment to a much simpler high throughput G-Rex centric approach. The high popularity of ScaleReady's G-Rex Grant Program led ScaleReady to increase award funds from the original amount of $20M to a total of $30M directed towards saving recipients significant time and money by expediting the path to optimized cell and gene-modified cell therapy manufacturing. Two hundred grants have already been awarded with over 50 new applications in the queue. Each G-Rex Grant recipient can obtain up to $300,000 and gain access to exclusive support from ScaleReady's growing consortium of G-Rex Grant Partners who bring best-in-class tools and technologies as well as unparalleled knowledge and expertise in the areas of cGMP manufacturing, quality and regulatory affairs, CGT business operations, and more. For more information about the G-Rex® Grant Program, please contact info@ About ScaleReadyScaleReady provides the field of cell and gene-modified cell therapy (CGT) with a G-Rex centric manufacturing platform that enables the world's most practical, flexible, scalable, and affordable CGT drug product development and manufacturing. The G-Rex manufacturing platform is currently used by a rapidly growing list of over 800 organizations and is producing drug products for approximately 50% of CGT clinical trials as well as 5 commercially approved CGT drugs. CGT entities relying on the breadth and scope of ScaleReady's expertise can expect to save years of time and millions of dollars on the path to CGT commercialization. For more information about the ScaleReady G-Rex® Grant Program, please contact info@ About Wilson Wolf ManufacturingWilson Wolf ( is dedicated to simplifying cell and gene-modified cell (CGT) therapy research, process development, and manufacturing. This is being accomplished through its scalable G-Rex technology, which is used throughout the world in CGT applications ranging from basic research to commercial drug production. Wilson Wolf's mission is to create hope for cancer patients, one G-Rex® device at a time. About Bio-Techne CorporationBio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) is a global life sciences company providing innovative tools and bioactive reagents for the research and clinical diagnostic communities. Bio-Techne, in partnership with Wilson Wolf, is creating products such as media and cytokines that are specifically tailored to G-Rex® Bioreactors, including right-sized reagent quantities in containers that are tailored to high throughput closed-system manufacturing. For more information on Bio-Techne and its brands, please visit or follow the Company on social media at: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube. Contact: David Clair, Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate About CellReady LLCCellReady is the world's first and only G-Rex centric contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specializing in G-Rex based cell and gene-modified cell therapy development and manufacturing. The company offers a wide range of services to support the development and commercialization of these therapies. CellReady's mission is to create hope for cancer patients, one G-Rex® process at a time. About Immuneel therapeutics Private LimitedImmuneel Therapeutics Private Limited is a cutting-edge biotechnology company based in Bangalore, India, at the forefront of advancing cell and gene therapies, as well as personalized immunotherapies, for cancer patients in India. As a research-driven and fully integrated organization, Immuneel is dedicated to making next-generation cancer treatments accessible and affordable, with a strong focus on innovation and clinical impact. The company's mission is to democratize advanced therapies by developing and commercializing breakthrough solutions tailored to the needs of Indian patients. As part of its growing portfolio, Immuneel has licensed and commercialized Qartemi® (varnimcabtagene autoleucel), a CD19 CAR-T cell therapy approved by India's Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) for the treatment of adult B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma a novel therapy for blood cancer, further demonstrating its commitment to transforming cancer care in India. Immuneel has a robust pipeline of CAR-T therapies for various indications in Oncology and AutoImmune diseases For more information, please visit: View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Bio-Techne Corporation
