Weekend Reading August 30, 2012

One of the concepts I try to get into my students' heads is that all of biology is interconnected and dependent on each other.  You may not like mosquitoes but they are important to the overall ecosystem.  Eliminate something you don't want and you may loose something you value. 

Another idea is that a healthy ecosystem can deal with changes we humans are creating much better than a flawed ecosystem.  Here's an example of both of these concepts:  Sea Otters reduce problems caused by excess fertilizer runoff in California.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/26/sea-otters-your-defence-against-the-algal-apocalypse/

I learned that these bugs were called "toe-biters."  Now I am very glad I've not been bitten by one.  Graphic video included at link.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/2013/08/27/the-attack-of-the-giant-water-bug/

One of my favorite soapboxes, via IO9:  Cats should be kept indoors.  It's better for the cat (indoor cats have a life expectancy approximately twice that of cats that go outdoors) and here's a rundown on why it's better for the environment.

http://io9.com/whats-being-done-about-all-those-damn-feral-cats-1212779224

I really love this guy's photos!  AND he's talking about a sub-group of Preying Mantises (Mantids?).  Very cool.

http://thesmallermajority.com/2013/08/25/empusids/

Scientists are not all knowing and all infallible.  An entomologist recently posted this picture with a plea for help in identification.  What a very, very, odd structure.  Check it out (and read the caption for the current best guess about what it might be).

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=652163484801646&set=a.137894259561907.20827.133864286631571&type=1&theater

Reason number 1,618,435 to not use pesticides

This.

A Giant Swallowtail.  They're rare where I live and this one is well worn, suggesting he's been around for a while.

If I used pesticides on my lawn chances are I would never have gotten to see him because this poor fellow would have been poisoned before I spotted him (I'm not sure of the gender, I just made a wild guess and named him George).

Pollinators around the world are in trouble due, in part, to overuse of pesticides.  Farmer in the US are doing a good job of reducing their pesticide use so pesticide companies are targeting the home consumer with products that recommend regular pesticide application whether you see a problem or not and "weed and feed" fertilizers that come with pesticide included and companies that charge you to apply pesticide to your lawn on their schedule.  I'm SURE they're honest about your needs and not putting down extra pesticide and fertilizer so they can increase their profits (heavy, heavy sarcasm)

[I honestly don't know why people put pesticide on the LAWN. I've never notice insect damage to my lawn. The dogs have done some damage  And the neighborhood kids. And the dry weather.  But not insects.]

So next time you reach for that pesticide just because remember this gorgeous fellow and ask yourself if loosing pollinators, including butterflies, is worth it to have a "perfect" monoculture lawn.

Weekend Reading August 23, 2013

Bored with your commute?  Instead of texting, trying doing some SCIENCE!

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/21/speeding-towards-birds-in-a-car-for-science/

Some birds lay their eggs in other species' nests.  Some of these host species are completely unaware of the new, unwanted egg.  When African Honeyguides lay eggs in the nests of Bee-Eaters the poor Bee-Eaters don't notice.  So why are African Honeyguides evolving so that their eggs look more like the eggs of the Bee-Eater?  Very cool story that demonstrates the complexity of life.  Gains bonus points for close up of newly hatched murderous African Honeyguide.  Looses points for no pictures of Bee-Eaters.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/20/parasitic-bird-fights-evolutionary-arms-race-with-itself/

Green Bee-Eater by Anton Croos thanks to Wikimedia Commons

While some people still try to deny that the global climate in changing other people are preparing for a very different climactic future.

http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2013/08/19/hot-times-in-the-cotswolds/

It takes more intelligence for animals to live in ecosystems affected by people.  Some animals have been evolving bigger brains to help them deal.  This is evolution in action!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/science/as-humans-change-landscape-brains-of-some-animals-change-too.html?ref=science&_r=1&

One more reason to spare the pesticide - the "lowly" dung beetle helps to reduce methane released by feces and therefore...  Dung Beetles Help Reduce Climate Change!

http://www.livescience.com/39104-dung-beetles-cows-methane.html

Weekend Reading August 17, 2013

Continuing with the thoughts on exotic animals in captivity:

Costa Rica is closing it's zoos - what's going to happen to the animals?  If you know much about life in the wild or the lack of good "rescue" facilities the answer is not as nice as it sounds.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/world/americas/costa-rica-zoo-cages/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter

Captive exotic animals are not domesticated animals.  The calm, easy going Tapir is known for attacking people when they (the Tapirs) have young.  As in this case where someone had the very, very bad idea of letting a 2 year old human in an enclosure with a Tapir and her cub.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2013/08/11/tapir-attacks-past-present-not-future/

To change the subject - one of the baddest of the baddies - the Mantis Shrimp!  They can hit at speeds of a 22 caliber gun and see colors that we can't even imagine.  You don't want this guy in your fish tank - he can literally break the glass to  let himself out!  [True Facts videos such as this one sometimes contain NSFW language)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLOHbM4GGWADc5bZgvbivvttAuWGow6h05

Some of my favorite bees are not the stereotypical yellow and black.  Great picts on Wired.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/beautiful-bees/

Looking Up - Part 2!

While laying on the deck recently [stretching my back out, if you must know] and watching the birds and clouds fly overhead I was reminded of all the life that goes on up there, out of sight to those of us who are earth bound.  Even if we do go up in airplanes it's unlikely we'll look out the window and count insects as we fly along at 5-600 miles an hour.  I'm good at spotting birds at 55 but I think spotting insects at 555 is a bit too challenging. 

Besides, it's not just birds and insects up there.  Ready to be creeped out again?

At 30,000 feet your plane is surrounded by life.  Fungi, pollen and bacteria, LOTS of bacteria.  

thanks to Przemyslaw "BlueShade" Idzkiewicz and Wikimedia Commons

What a shock that must have been?  Finding bacteria in the clouds.  Not much is known about these bacteria.  Sure, some are species that are commonly found down here at ground (or sea) level.  It wouldn't be surprising to find that bacteria use air currents to move from one place to another.  But over 60% of the bacteria in the clouds appears to be active.  They are going about their normal lives, growing, dividing, spreading.  And they quite possibly serve at least one function that we find useful - cloud formation.

So next time your laying outside, looking up and explaining what you think that cloud looks like just remember this - it really looks like a bunch of bacteria clumping together!

Looking Up

The weather today is fantastic.  Perfect for laying down on the deck and watching birds, dragonflies and clouds.  Only, as a scientist, my brain continued to analyze what I was seeing.

The birds were mostly swallows, a few chimney swifts, a lone gull.  The gull was just flying by but the swifts and swallows were performing acrobatics - flying fast and high and making sudden turns.  What were they doing?  Hunting.  Swifts and swallows eat their insect prey on the wing.

Thanks to Walter Siegmond and Wikimedia Commons

Which means...  there must be a LOT of insects up there that I don't see.  Enough to fuel high powered flight. Enough to raise hungry offspring.  How many could there be?  British scientist Jason Chapman estimates that about 3 billion insects pass over head every month 1.  That comes out to 100 million each day.  That will feed more than a few swallows.  And give the insect-paranoid a raging case of the creeps.

What are the insects doing up there?  Migrating, moving from one territory to another, hunting each other (remember those dragonflies I spotted?), trying to catch a ride on a Virgin Atlantic flight?  [only one of these is unlikely - guess which one]

It is truly amazing how much life it out there, just beyond our range of vision.  Even it we're paying attention we could miss it.

1.  For more information check out this NPR story at

 http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/look-up-the-billion-bug-highway-you-cant-see

Weekend Reading August 9

Shark week - now with REAL FACTS (a lot of scientists are unhappy with Discovery's Shark Week this year because of all the bad information and flat out wrong information).

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/06/like-shark-week-but-with-actual-facts/

Did you know that Dolphins have names?  They call out their own name to let others know they're around (probably).  Instead of trying to teach dolphins to speak human languages, scientists are finally started to try and  understand THEIR language.  Here's a study that shows that dolphins remember the names of other dolphins for at least 20  years.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130806-dolphins-memories-animals-science-longest/

Any excuse to use alcohol in the lab - a study that got zebra fish drunk to study anxiety.

http://inkfish.fieldofscience.com/2013/08/fish-fear-robotic-predators-unless.html

Disturbing view of what happens when a mosquito bites.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/06/heres-what-happens-inside-you-when-a-mosquito-bites/

Excellent editorial on whether crabs and lobsters feel pain and whether the answer to that should influence how we treat them.

http://marine-biology.net/2013/01/18/do-crabs-feel-pain/

Bonus Video:  For our friends at the NSF - your cat video.  Big cats.  Very Big Cats.  Be sure you have your speakers turned on.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/serengeti-lion/index.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20130806ngm-coalintw&utm_campaign=Content/#/coalition

Zoos and Captivity

There is a lot in the news right now about exotic (non-domesticated) animals in zoos and other forms of captivity.  Costa Rica is apparently closing all of it's zoos and several countries are banning dolphins in captivity.  I'm reading a lot about how exotic animals, especially large ones, would be happier in the wild.

My opinion?  It's complicated, and many of those commenting on the situation are anthropomorphizing.

[Anthropomorphizing is putting human characteristics in a non-human "my computer hates me" or "my dog KNOWS he's not supposed to poop on the rug"]

I've been considering this issue for a long time and, being a scientist, I decided I needed more data.  

So I've volunteered at zoos and animal sanctuaries, I've worked with wildlife and I've studied a lot about how animals live in the wild.  And my conclusion?  It's complicated.

I think we CAN (and probably SHOULD) have exotic animals in zoos.  But we have to pick and choose the species and make sure the habitat and enrichment are high quality [enrichment is entertainment and exercise, so the animals don't get bored].

Let's talk about cats.

No, not those cats, THESE cats.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME - I helped to bottle raise this still very young tiger from infancy.  This is the last time I went in the cage with him.  He was getting too large and too potentially dangerous after this point.

I've done volunteer work with several species of exotic cat and I've observed a few species in the wild.  Lions and tigers?  Easy to do in captivity.  They do well in the right situation.  Small cats like the fishing cat?  Not so much.  Exotic cat species that are the size of a house cat are very nervous in captivity and do not like people looking at them.  

Image via Wikimedia Commons thanks to Cliff for posting it there

Lions and tigers?  They either don't care or enjoy interacting with people (I know of one place that had to reinforce their glass viewing area because one of their tigers liked to jump out of hiding at people and slam against the glass - great reaction from the people, entertainment for the tiger, but we don't want that glass breaking!).

So smaller is not necessarily better.  

How is the average person supposed to form an opinion on the subject? I really don't know.  I have opinions about certain species, those I've worked with or know a lot about through research but other species?  For example I don't know if giraffes do well in captivity or not but I hate seeing bears in zoos (I have seen ONE place that does bears right.   ONE).

Then there is the idea that animals are happier in the wild.

Snort.

I've studied and worked with wild animals, too.  Life in the wild is not a Disney movie.  It's hard, often painful and very often short.  Are wild animals happy?  Maybe some are but I don't think that happiness is the appropriate word for how they feel.  Most of them they're just trying to survive day by day.  I'd be willing to bet the tiger in the above picture is "happier" in captivity than if he were in the wild.  His life is certainly easier.

Let me leave you with an anecdote.  

There is a facility in Florida that has captive dolphins.  Their enclosures are set up so that water flows freely from the "wild" into the "pens."  When a hurricane is on track to hit this facility they open the pens and let the dolphins out.  The dolphins can then swim out to deeper water or away from the direct path of the storm where it is safer.  After the storm the dolphins come back on their own.  

Now tell me they're happier in the wild than in captivity.

Photo by Faraj Meir from Wikimedia Commons

Weekend Reading August 2, 2013

Fucking Fantastic news from the world of poisonous snake bites.  A new nasal spray that can be used in the field that gives snake bite victims more time to get to a hospital to be treated.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/?p=3299#.Ufe5041QHuJ

The brain is an amazing and poorly understood organ.  Here's some food for thought about what we DON"T understand about the brain.

http://io9.com/8-things-we-simply-dont-understand-about-the-human-bra-949442979

Here's an extinction event we can all celebrate - coming soon (hopefully) the end of the Guinea Worm.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/07/an-extinction-to-celebrate.html

Great article on the Fiscal Shrike.  No, this has nothing to do with the current economic crisis.  It's about a modern version of a velociraptor.

http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2013/07/30/the-macabre-habits-of-the-butcher-bird/

It's a rare day when I learn about a completely new type of animal that I'd never, ever heard of before that isn't like anything I'd ever heard of before.  Today is one of those rare days.  Meet the Pyrosome (with video!).

http://deepseanews.com/2013/08/the-60-foot-long-jet-powered-animal-youve-probably-never-heard-of/