European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 14, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A sort of last Frontier for researchers National geographic whale s closest relative on land is probably a Hippopotamus scientists have recently concluded. Such a conclusion reflects a shifting attitude. Heretofore Many scientists believed that whales mammals gone to sea and uniquely adapted to that foreign environment resemble no living land mammals. Ancestors of modern whales were probably Large land creatures called Meson chips that lived about 60 million years ago. From the lagoons and estuaries where they dwelt evolved intermediate aquatic animals that have since branched into the nearly 80 whale species now recognized. The mammals most Akin to whales belong to a group that stayed ashore including hippos. Also in the group Are Deer sheep Bison pigs camels and cattle. Whales we Are realizing Are mammals first Ocean dwellers second writes James m. Darling in the current National geographic. Darling executive director of the West coast whale research foundation who earned his doctorate studying Humpback whales and their unique songs writes i think the Humpback song much like the Antlers or horns of hoofed animals could be a secondary sexual characteristic of males to display  he sees similarities in the mating activities of humpbacks and Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep. Biologists describe behaviour Between whale mothers and calves As comparable to Moose Muskox and Caribou. Another scientist sees parallels Between bottle nose Dolphin and lion societies. And another suggests that the sperm whale s mating system is much like that of african elephants. All these conclusions Are evidence of scientists most important finding about whales Over the past two decades no longer must we kill whales to study them. Still whales continue to die at the hands of humans both for commercial and scientific reasons. The numbers Are declining. Fifteen years ago 45,673 whales were killed the number had plummeted to 6,623 by 1985. In 1986 the International whaling commission declared a five year moratorium on commercial whaling. Subsistence Hunting is still done by Alaska natives and by aborigines of Canada Greenland and Siberia. Last year Norway made about 300 commercial kills of Minke whales and under the Guise of scientific research Japan targeted California Gray whale migration route whales Migrate the California coast Enro Ute from summer feeding grounds in Arctic Waters to Winter calving \ \ lagoons in Baja i m California. \ \ in late Winter and Spring v the whales head North often passing very closet land. Baja California Mexico the roundtrip is up to 14.000  Gray whales Are 35-45 feet in length and weigh up to 45 tons a male Humpback whale left a female and her calf cavort As a couple of fish swim by. National geographic 300 minkes Iceland 80 Fin whales and 20 Sei whales. In retaliation the United states has barred Japan from catching fish in . Waters. Meanwhile Darling writes research at Cambridge University suggests that molecular analysis of Small skin samples might provide vital information on whale populations a technique that if proven could put the scientific whalers out of business for  living whales represent a sort of last Frontier for researchers. Although biologists have successfully radio collared and tracked most endangered land animals that has t worked with whales. They can t be Tranquili Zed and they Lack necks and convenient appendages to hold transmitters. The sea plays havoc with electronic gear. Bruce mate of Oregon state University thinks he s on the Brink of a solution Landing a Small helicopter gently on a whale s Back then releasing a Coffee cup size transmitter that would implant itself with stainless steel sutures much like a barnacle. Mate who has had some Success implanting transmitters on stranded or otherwise accessible whales prec to in a few years several species will be satellite tagged. Field researchers with Laptop computers will be Able to pick up a pay phone and get the animals locations and dive data for the previous  even without radio telemetry scientists continually broaden their knowledge of whales. In a 20-year study of about 330 killer whales in British Columbia Waters for example a Canadian Mamm Logist has Learned that killer whale society is the most stable known of any social mammal. Although seemingly imperturbable whales suffer All manner of torments from such pests As Birds pecking parasites from their backs or barnacles and other hitchhikers that can festoon a whale like a moving. Island. A More serious threat May be posed by myriad species of internal parasites. A Ling considers the term gentle giants a Misnomer when violence erupts among male humpbacks competing for females. I have often watched pairs of humpbacks lashing each other with their tails he writes really beating the tar out of each  not Ili Belthe whales Are o Lompoc pts Conception j Xyr to California Gray whales %4 1 m Prate s0"1" to Baja i n Tate fall and Winter. Sanmiguel %/sma/0 v of 101 pm ii California Gray whales Migrate North to the Arctic in the Spring. 25 Miles it $autacru2l$lant a a Max xxx % v he of Tot Camm of Santa Rosa Island a a 44 we of Cochew Page 14 the stars and stripes saturday january 14,1989 not National geographic 2 the ruins of the peruvian City of Machu Pitchu have Long fascinated scholars studying incan culture. Unravelling Machu Pichu s inca history by Donald Smith National geographic whoever they were whatever name be finally assigned to this site by future historians of this i feel sure that few romances can Ever surpass that of the Granite Citadel on top of the Beutling precipices of Machu Pitchu the Crown of inca land. U. Hiram Bigham 1922 w Hoever they were they probably weren t virgins of the  idea that incas once kept carefully chosen women tucked away at the mysterious ruin of Machu Pitchu in the Southern peruvian Highlands is one of several romantic notions first advanced by Hiram Bingham who discovered the site in 1911 that have been treated harshly by recent re examinations. Long a popular tourist attraction in Peru and one of the world s most spectacular archaeological Sites Machu Pitchu Over the past decade has become a focal Point in a revival of academic interest in inca culture. Along with the new wave of research a number of Long cherished ideas Are falling. Tourist guides still Tell the Sun virgins Story How the most Beautiful women from All Corners of the inca Empire were selected periodically to live in Stone Cloisters overlooking the uru Bamba River Valley thousands of feet below there to tend to the needs religious and otherwise of the inca ruler. Yale historian Bingham based his theory about the presence of a female religious order at Machu Pitchu on an examination of skeletal remains he recovered from tombs. Using state of the Art technology of the time the original study indicated that 109 of 135 skeletons were female. But a recent Yale study of the remains using More sophisticated techniques shows that the sex of the skeletons is More evenly balanced. This knocks the underpinnings away from one of Bingham s most titillating conclusions. The virgins of the Sun idea has t been taken very seriously in recent years Yale anthropologist Richard Burger tells National geographic. The re examination has dealt a death blow to that  Burger is curator of the collection of human Bones pottery metals and other artefacts found by Bingham. Much of the current reappraisal of the incas and one of their most impressive architectural achievements is due to the work of the patriarch of modern inca studies John h. Rowe who recently retired from the University of California Berkeley. Besides inspiring a new generation of inca scholars Rowe is responsible for Many new perceptions now shaking conventional Wisdom about the Empire that before the Spanish Conquest covered All of what is now Ecuador Peru Bolivia and Northern Chile. Another Bingham proposition was that Machu Pitchu was known to the spaniards As Vilca Bamba last stronghold of the inca lords As they retreated from european cavalry steel and Gunpowder. He theorized that a conspiracy of silence among indians who remained in the old Imperial City of Cuzco kept the Spanish from discovering the Mountaintop City of White Granite. If the conquistadors Ever saw this wonderful place some reference to it surely would have been made yet nothing can be found which clearly refers to the ruins of Machu Pitchu Bingham wrote in 1922. After years of poring Over 16th-Century Spanish archives in Lima and Cuzco Rowe disputed that theory in a paper he delivered in Cuzco during a 1986 conference marking the 75th anniversary of Bingham s discovery. Rowe reported finding in one of the Spanish documents what he believes to be a Clear reference to Machu Pitchu. I was Able to suggest the name of at least one spaniard who had probably seen it he says. Based on this and other evidence Rowe thinks that Machu Pitchu was the Royal estate of a powerful emperor Pacha cute inca you Yanqui who led the first major expansion of the Empire beyond its Highland Home around Cuzco. Scientists now believe that Machu Pitchu was deserted shortly after Pacha cute s death in 1471 61 years before the Spanish Conquest. But scholars still agree with one of Bingham s Central observations that Machu Pitchu had great religious significance for the incas who worshipped Thunder and lightning running water and mountains As Well As the Sun. I be got caught out there in a few lightning storms says inca specialist Margaret Maclean who is writing a Book about Machu Pitchu and other inca Sites in the area. In a torrential downpour Thunder echoes around the whole Basin As if you re in an Amphitheater. It s remarkably impressive and seems to embody All the major elements of inca religion. It s All right  Machu Pitchu discoverer Hiram Bingham. The stars and stripes Page 15