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Whale tracked in 5,300-mile ocean voyage

AN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say a 13-year-old gray whale dubbed "Flex" has been tracked by satellite in a migration that's covered more than 5,300 miles.

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Tagged in October in Russian waters off Sakhalin Island with a transmitter that reports his location to scientists each day, Flex was tracked past the central California coast on the weekend, the San Jose Mercury News reported Sunday.

Researchers have calculated his average swimming speed at around 4 mph and say he travels about 100 miles each day.

"These whales swim 24 hours a day," Bruce Mate, director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, said. "It's not an 8-hour shift. They don't feed during their migration, and they're really moving along."

Flex is a western gray whale and with only 130 known individuals the species is second only to the North Atlantic right whale in terms of large marine mammals approaching extinction.

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Little is known of their behavior except that they summer off the Russian coast to feed.

Flex has so far journeyed more than 5,300 miles, almost directly across deep, open ocean waters from Russia to Alaska before turning south.

Though Flex is providing some first clues to the western gray's habits, researchers say they still don't know where he is going, whether long journeys such as his are normal or if he is traveling with other whales.

"That's the wonderful thing about tagging studies," Mate said. "You put the instruments on the animals and they tell their own stories. They go where they go."


Dangerous tapeworm found in Sweden

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Swedish health authorities say a tapeworm that can be fatal to humans has been discovered in a fox, the first appearance of the parasite in the country.

Foxes are tested each year, and samples taken last seek from a suspected infected fox in southwestern Sweden came back positive, the Swedish news agency TT reported Monday.

"This is very serious. It has never before been found in Sweden," said Carl Hard at the National Veterinary Institute.

Since tapeworm eggs can end up on berries and mushrooms through animal feces, Swedes may have to stop eating food picked fresh from the forest if more animals are found to be infected, authorities said.

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While the parasite is relatively harmless for dogs, cats and foxes, it can be a serious health danger to humans, Hard said.

"It can form cysts in internal organs. If someone becomes infected, he or she will have to undergo lifelong anti-parasite treatment and survival is not certain," he said.

Since the worm has only been found in one animal, Hard estimated the infection has not been present in Sweden for very long.

"Now we have to start analyzing as many foxes and small rodents as we can from the area to see how widespread the infection may be," he said.


Construction site yields Indian remains

PLEASANTON, Calif., Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Work was stopped at the California site of a new supermarket when remains of members of an American Indian tribe were uncovered, officials said.

Archaeologists called in say they've found the remains of at least 19 members of the Ohlone Indian tribe along with artifacts at the Pleasanton building site, the Contra Costa Times reported Monday.

The discovery was the fourth in the last decade of remains of the Ohlone people, who inhabited the California central coastal area.

The remains were found after Safeway Stores hired William Self Associates, a cultural resource management firm, to survey the land for a new store near the Alameda County Fairgrounds.

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The recent discovery increases the number of remains found by the company on or near the site in the last decade to more than 500.

"Modern folks in the area are finding out what the Ohlone Indians knew, that the Tri-Valley was a great place to live," said Andrew Galvan, an Ohlone descendant and curator of Mission Dolores in San Francisco.

"It appears to be the case that Ohlone Indians called this area home," said James Allan, WSA vice president and principal. "Given the number that we have found, and the close distance, it appears to be a fairly large population."

Safeway received approval from Pleasanton's City Council in October to build the store after agreeing to hire a qualified archaeologist to conduct land surveys.

Safeway broke ground on the new store last week but work on the site where the remains were found has been suspended. Allan said the cataloging and excavating could take three months to complete.

Under state law, the California Native American Heritage Commission has assigned a person known as "the most-likely descendant" to consult with the landowner.

The remains could either be moved to another site for burial or be reburied on the same area in a spot where they won't be disturbed, Allan said.

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Baboon cells used to grow arteries

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say muscle cells from baboons could be used to grow human arteries to treat people whose arteries have been damaged by disease.

Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh say the arteries, presently being tested in small animals, could help patients with arteries affected by coronary disease or obesity, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Monday.

Currently, patients with damaged arteries rely on transplants of small arteries from other parts of the body, a procedure with drawbacks that could be avoided if arteries can be grown successfully, researchers said.

"There is a large demand for arteries," Yadong Wang, a bioengineering professor at the university, said.

Scientists can harvest millions of cells for the research from a tiny sample of baboon tissue, so animals need not be sacrificed, Wang said.

The goal, he said, is to perfect the process and product with baboon cells and then replicate it with cells from a human donor so that a patient could provide the cells to grow an artery that could be transplanted.

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