Hairy-nosed news. (Letters).Let me preface my comment by saying that I have been providing Faith M. Walker with access to semitame and hand-raised southern hairy-nosed wombats for her studies ("Wild Hair," SN: 4/20/02, p. 250). You didn't mention that Faith's work has an application in studying the effects of habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation is a process of environmental change important in evolution and conservation biology. As the name implies, it describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat). , which is a major cause of the species' decline. On a more personal note, the animal Faith is holding in the picture (p. 251) is Wanda, a hand-raised orphan who dug her way out of our enclosure last October and has not been seen since. BOB CLEAVER, SANDLETON VIA SEDAN, AUSTRALIA The story says there are "several hundred" northern hairy-nosed wombats. Actually, unpublished hair-taping and trapping data from Andrea Taylor and Sam Banks at Monash University Facilities in are diverse and vary in services offered. Information on residential sevices at Monash University, including on-campus (MRS managed) and off-campus, can be found at [2] Student organisations suggest there are between 96 and 150 of the animals. FAITH M. WALKER, MONASH UNIVERSITY, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA The opening and closing of the article "Wild Hair" sets the tone that the falsification falsification /fal·si·fi·ca·tion/ (fawl?si-fi-ka´shun) lying. retrospective falsification unconscious distortion of past experiences to conform to present emotional needs. inherent in hair sampling is just a minor aberration and, in fact, is conjectural con·jec·tur·al adj. 1. Based on or involving conjecture. See Synonyms at supposed. 2. Tending to conjecture. con·jec . A reading of the article indicates that the General Accounting Office investigation did not find it so. The specious spe·cious adj. 1. Having the ring of truth or plausibility but actually fallacious: a specious argument. 2. Deceptively attractive. assertion of the falsifiers that they were testing the lab to which they sent fur samples, if presented in a criminal case, would be laughed out of court. These workers not only violated the law but betrayed the concept of scientific integrity. Frankly, these "investigators" committed a crime and at least should be discharged from their positions. CARL H. NEUMAN, NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , N.Y. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion