It is Spain’s turn to receive the first mention in this week’s bulletin. Jose A Mendez EA9E, Spain’s National Emcomm Coordinator writes of what they call a “DANA”, which is Spanish for an isolated depression at high levels, and which recently affected the east and south of the country, bringing a year’s worth of rain to the region in 6 hours. We still call an isolated depression at high levels, a “cut-off low”.

This has resulted in flooding, river overflows and damage to infrastructure. The most affected communities include areas in the east and south of the country, such as the Valencian Community, Murcia and Andalusia. 

Emergency services are working to care for affected people and to recover damaged areas. Evacuations are also being carried out in high-risk areas. In addition, a meteorological alert has been activated in several provinces, and the population is advised to follow the instructions of local authorities.

In the areas affected by the DANA, telecommunications have been disrupted due to flooding and damage to infrastructure. It is common for mobile phone coverage and internet service to be down in emergency situations.

Operators are working to restore services as quickly as possible, but recovery times may vary depending on the severity of the damage and weather conditions. Local authorities usually provide updates on the telecommunications situation and the population is advised to stay informed through radio or media that do not depend on the internet. The REMER (Civil Protection Radio Emergency Network) is pre-alerted in the affected areas. The VHF-UHF repeaters are working correctly and providing coverage in the affected areas.

On Friday evening, I gathered that the death toll from the flooding was standing at 158.

And the red alert issued last Sunday by GDACS for Tropical Cyclone KONG-REY showed it to have arisen in the Guam region, and, travelling northwest, was skimming the top of the Philippines, and aiming squarely at Taiwan. Maximum expected wind speeds were in the 210km/h region, and it was expected to arrive in Taiwan on Wednesday the 30th. The storm was then expected to move along the southeast coast of mainland China, before threatening Japan. 15 million people were threatened with winds speeds in excess of 120km/h.

And from sciencenews.com this week, I have discovered that the very new field of Forensic Entomology is being used to investigate the worrying field of rhino poaching.

In 1988, police officers in Australia came for Ian Dadour. Not because the entomologist was under arrest, but because they needed his expertise. Investigators asked Dadour to estimate the ages of maggots found on a human body to help them gauge when a homicide victim had been killed. Dadour went on to teach this and other entomology-based forensic methods to the South African Police Service. Today, officers are using these tools to investigate another type of crime: rhino poaching.

South Africa is home to thousands of rhinos, including critically endangered black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) and near-threatened white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum). Poachers kill hundreds of rhinos every year, usually for the animals’ horns. The country’s police force adopted forensic entomology into its poaching prevention arsenal in 2014, training officers to collect insect evidence found at wildlife crime scenes.

The process works the same with rhinos as it does with humans, says Dadour, now of Source Certain, an Australian company that verifies the origin of agriculture and seafood. Officers collect adults, larvae and eggs of carrion insects such as flies and beetles from the victim. Carrion insects are quick to find and lay eggs on a dead body — often descending in under an hour — which then hatch and develop at a predictable pace. In that way, they act as a biological clock.

Forensic entomologists can estimate how long a body has been dead based on what insects are present and the life cycle stage of the insects’ offspring. That estimate is called a minimum postmortem interval. The method is most accurate before and during active decay; because, as decomposition progresses, accuracy drops. “When the conditions are right, it can be very useful,” says Martin Villet, a forensic entomologist based in Cape Town, South Africa. Investigators can use the data to track down killers, and prosecutors can use it as evidence in the courtroom. 

Dadour and Melanie Pienaar — a forensic entomologist at the South African Police Service — wanted to document which insects were used to investigate rhino deaths. They examined 19 cases of rhino poaching that were investigated in part using forensic entomology. Their analysis of the cases, which occurred between 2014 and 2021, involved tallying the various insect species present at each stage of decomposition, comparing the minimum postmortem interval estimates and factoring in the average ambient temperature during each time period.

Of the 119 insects collected from the rhinos, blowflies (Diptera) and beetles (Coleoptera) were the most abundant and useful for calculating the minimum postmortem interval for each rhino, the team reports October 9 in Medical and Veterinary Entomology. Some bugs (Hemiptera) were also present, but weren’t as helpful for these calculations.

Dadour has trained wildlife officers to use the technique outside of rhino poaching, for example when keeping tabs on endangered Australian marsupials called numbats (Myrmecobius fasciatus). It can also be used in animal cruelty cases.

However, forensic entomology isn’t widely used to investigate wildlife crimes,  Dadour says. For South Africa’s rhinos, at least, it and other anti-poaching measures have helped populations slowly increase, he says.

Thanks to Sciencenews.org for this evidence of progressive thinking in the fight against the threat of extinction facing the South African rhino.

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.