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March 30, 2006
The New Days Of The Condor
It's great news for condors this week. For the first time in 101 years, California Condors (Gymnogyps californianus) have nested in the Big Sur redwoods, not fifty miles from here!
A giant opportunistic predator who once fed on seals and other coastal life, the condor is a vulture on the brink of extinction. Known for its massive wingspan of up to 10 feet, the condor has has the distinction of being the largest flying land bird in the Western Hemisphere.
Shooting and poisoning eventually led the California condor population to decline dramatically until fewer than 25 birds were left in the world. About twenty years ago, the remaining wild ones were put into captive breeding programs to try and sustain them, and several have been re-released in California in the past ten years or so.
But as far as anyone knows, this is the first incident of condors breeding in the wild once again.
The condor couple was found Monday displaying typical nesting behavior inside a hollowed-out redwood tree in Big Sur, a mountainous coastal region south of Monterey, the Ventana Wildlife Society said Tuesday.
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Ventana, a nonprofit group, began releasing condors into the wild in 1997 and now monitors a population of 38 condors in Central California.The last known condor egg in Northern California was collected in 1905 in Monterey County.
More At: KTVU: Condors End 100-Year Absence In Norcal Woods
Posted by sorsha at 7:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 21, 2006
Pooch Poop Powered
Even as dogs get smaller and smaller, the poop piles just keep growing and growing.
Leave it to the San Franciscans to embrace alternative fuel and recycling plans. They've now embraced a new recycling program to turn pet poop into fuel to heat homes and provide electricity.
San Francisco is home to an estimated 120,000 dogs, far more than there are children.
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Almost 10 million tons (9 million metric tons) of dog and cat waste is generated annually in the U.S.
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1 ton (0.9 metric ton) of animal waste could produce 50 gallons (190 liters) of diesel-equivalent fuel, enough to heat a house in New England for two weeks."Once you start multiplying it the numbers get pretty enormous, and all of a sudden it looks very appreciable,"
More at: National Geographic: San Francisco to Turn Dog Poop Into Biofuel
Funny enough, we treat our pets so well, feeding them high fat gourmet pet food, that pet poop is even more power-packed!
Posted by sorsha at 8:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 20, 2006
Gas-Guzzling Garden Gadgetry
They're noisy, they're dusty, they're smelly. I guess I've never understood why a good rake is so much more difficult than wearing the Ghostbuster get-up. Leaf blowers, to me, are one of the oddest bits of garden gadgetry and also the most annoying. Push-mowers, riding mowers, and weed wackers I can understand, but the purpose of the gas-guzzling leaf blower eludes me.
Today's California Report from NPR talked about a leaf blower ban in Los Angeles, part of their smog-control policies. Since gas-blowers were introduced into the United States in the 1970's, they have been embraced by some, and loathed by others. Various cities, including nearby Palo Alto have passed some form of ban on leaf blowers - usually in residential areas only. California still leads the nation on leaf blower sales, though.
Noise pollution seems to make up most of the complaints and I certainly understand. In our area, the leaf blower guys rev 'em up at 8AM every Tuesday and I have to scramble to close the windows, or we get a nice layer of dust, not to mention fumes, blow into our house.
I knew the leaf blower was annoying, but I hadn't realize how harmful the gadgets could be to the environment and to public health. The emissions from these gas-powered blowers are surprisingly bad:
Emissions from the two-stroke combustion engine include particulate matter [dust] as well as gaseous carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons (CO, NOx, and HC). Leaf blowers also raise (entrain) dust from the ground. And evaporative emissions of fuel occur during the refueling process, which sometimes spills gas on the operators, and from the fuel tank.
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According to the Lung Association, a leaf blower causes as much smog as 17 cars.
Street dust includes lead, organic carbon, and elemental carbon according to a study conducted for the California Air Resources Board . The Lung Association states "the lead levels are of concern due to [their] great acute toxicity... Elemental carbon...usually contains several adsorbed carcinogens." Another study found arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and mercury in street dust as well.
More At: NPC QuietNet: Air Pollution From Leaf Blowers
Various companies are working on quiet blowers and cleaner air blowers. For more interesting facts on leaf blower impact on the environment, check out this list of leaf blower resources.
Posted by sorsha at 2:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 18, 2006
The Slippery Slope: Oil Spills More Frequent Than Thought
My friend mentioned to me today that there was a small oil spill near Elliot Bay in Seattle today. Is it just me, or have there been a lot of oil spills this month?
I was under the false impression that oil spills only happen every once in a while. After all, the 11 million gallons of oil the Exxon Valdez spilled into the Gulf of Alaska was years and years ago, right? Did you know that ship is still in service? It was re-christened Sea River Mediterranean and still operates in the Atlantic. The ship is prohibited by law from ever returning to Prince William Sound in Alaska.
Oil spills happen all the time, I was rather surprised to find. Just check Google news. What's the name of that movie? Any Given Sunday... Well, it's just a regular old Friday. Let's see what's happening oil-spillage-wise.
A quick Google search on oil spill turns up the Seattle spill, along with several other very recent oil spills happening around the world. Thirty seconds of searching around finds:
- Estonia, Gulf of Finland - 100+ tonnes (at least 700 barrels by my math)
- Chelsea River, Boston Harbor - 12,000 gallons +
- Seattle's Elliot Bay - ~15 gallons
- Bashkortostan pipeline, Russia - Unknown
- Southeastern Norway - 200 barrels
- Elbe River, Czech Republic - 500 litres (132gal, a little over three barrels)
Meanwhile, a tiny hole in an Alaskan pipeline went unchecked for days, resulting in what could be the worst spill in Alaska's North Slope ever - possibly more than 267,000 gallons of crude, with almost 800,000 gallons unaccounted for given some estimates.
On Thursday, March 2, a BP oil operator discovered signs of an oil spill at a caribou migration site on the snow-covered tundra of Alaska’s North Slope. Three days later, response workers finally uncovered the source of the spill – a breach in an oil transit pipeline
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Clean-up crews have already vacuumed up more than 50,000 gallons of crude oil and melted snow off the delicate tundra, but at least one report from an industry expert has indicated that up to 798,000 gallons could be unaccounted for, possibly making this the largest crude oil spill in the history of the North Slope, and second in Alaska only to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Oil is still dripping from the breached pipeline and the full extent of the damage and affected acreage are unknown.
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This weekend’s accident is just one in a long history of substantial spills seen on Alaska’s fragile North Slope since development began there. In fact, despite industry hype about the safety of development and new technology, the Prudhoe Bay oil fields and Trans-Alaska Pipeline have caused an average of 504 spills annually on the North Slope since 1996, according to the Alaska’s own Department of Environmental Conservation.
More at: Sierra Club: Drilling Causes Major Crude Oil Spill Near Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Did you catch that? 504 spills annually??? At just this one operation! One has to wonder how large most of these spills are. Also, the fact that the spill was found by a man who smelled it, as opposed to the pipe-line regulatory processes is a bit disturbing as well. In fact, recent news has shown that BP likely knew about the corrosion problem.
So I went around to try to see what kinds of oil spills stats I could find.One I found rather interesting was the Coast Guard's National Response Center. The National Response System is the U.S. government's mechanism for emergency response to discharges of oil and chemicals into the navigable waters or environment of the United States and its territories (says their website). They provide some interesting statistics on the number of reported spills as well as details on individual spills.
According to Smithsonian's Ocean Planet exhibit from 1995 (so the stats are over ten years old), about 706 million gallons of oil end up in our oceans every year, mostly from non-accidental sources.
Posted by sorsha at 1:21 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
March 17, 2006
A Friend For Dinner: Cannibalistic Creatures
Strictly speaking, cannibalism is the act of eating the flesh or the eggs of a member of your own species. Whether it's a neighbor, sibling, parent, child or lover, cannibalism is practiced by many species in the animal king, spanning all orders, from insects to mammals and is practiced for any number of reasons.
The infamous femme fatale, the praying mantis, has made sexual cannibalism quite famous by munching on her mate during and after the mating process. Why does she do this? Well, most sexual cannibalism is either because the female needs the meal in order to successfully reproduce and the male has served his function, or just a matter of the female being so much larger than the male that she preys upon him as a meal like any other.
Youngsters often bare the brunt of cannibalistic behavior. It is used to keep populations in check. This self-regulation ensures that the overall population stays healthy and doesn't compete too much for food and resources. Other times, youngsters are culled in order to free mothers to conceive more readily.
One is constantly surprised by the diversity of reasons in nature for which cannibalistic behavior exists. Here are a couple of examples of creatures that you may not have even realized use cannibalism as part of their lifestyle.
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Otters |
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Hippos |
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Sea Lions |
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Tigers |
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Ants |
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Butteryflies |
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Rabbits |
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Japanese Macaque |
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Birds |
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Vultures |
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Lions |
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Grizzly Bears |
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Sandtiger Sharks |
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Polar Bears |
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Komodo Dragons |
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Crocodiles |
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Humans |
You can also see some photographic examples of the cannibalistic behavior on Ladywildlife's website.
Posted by sorsha at 8:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 16, 2006
Did You Know? Rodents of Unusual Size Really Did Exist
Did you know?
Rodents of Unusual Size Really Did Exist
8 Million Years Ago
Back about 8 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch, a rodent of unusual size (ROUS from the movie The Princess Bride, a perlgurl personal favorite) roamed the swampy forests of the Orinoco River delta, foraging and grazing on grasses. One of the largest waterways in South America, the Orinoco winds from Venezuela through the Brazilian plains, finally emptying into Atlantic Ocean.
When I say unusual size, I'm talking 3 meters long plus tail (another 2m), weighing roughly 1500 pounds. The Phoberomys pattersoni looked like a really large capybara, and may actually be its distant evolutionary ancestor.
Don't believe it? Back in 2000, a near-complete skeletal fossil of Phoberomys was found in Venezuela.
Posted by sorsha at 1:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 15, 2006
Fossa Gets The Lion's Share...
Sometimes I run across the oddest nature stories. This happens to be one of them. The imagery here is rather.... astonishing. This isn't the kind of story that normally would appear in an American paper, and so it's no real surprise that it's the readers of the Times in Britain that got to read this story.
Madagascar is home to a variety of strange critters, mammals especially. According to WildMadagascar.org, about 3/4 of all species living on the island are found nowhere else in the world. However, it's a rather small island covered in rainforest, many of the creatures there, like the Aye-aye, lemurs, mongooses, flying foxes, are suffering from habitat loss.
There's also a rather funny looking cat-like nocturnal critter called a Fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox). It's kind of a cross between a mongoose and a jaguar and it's the largest carnivore living on Madagascar. Despite its small size, folklore makes Fossae out are vicious creatures and locals are often afraid of them.
However, one characteristic of the lemur-munching Fossa is no myth - they're very well hung.
Whatever men and smirking wives may say about size not mattering, the fossa, a diminutive and distant cousin of the lion, clearly isn’t listening.
The creature, dubbed the Pink Panther of Madagascar, has the largest penis bone of all the cat-like species which, scientists believe, ensures that it is the real king of its island jungle.
An adult fossa is about 3½ft long and has a penis of about 7in, a sixth of its body length. If Man had the same ratio he would be 3ft tall and very smug.
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The fossa, which weighs about 15lb (6.8kg), is the largest predator on Madagascar. Its main prey is the lemur but it will also catch hedgehogs, lizards and frogs.
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It is endangered and only 2,500 are left in the wild but the island’s Government promised recently to help to protect the fossa by ensuring that a tenth of Madagascar has protected status by 2008.
More At: The Times: Lion's cousin really is a big cat
Well, it's no wonder a lemur's eyes are round as saucers.
Posted by sorsha at 2:40 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
March 14, 2006
Want a Bunny? Buy the Chocolate Kind
Brace yourselves, it's time for my annual Don't Buy A Rabbit For Your Kid speech.
Many people buy cute little baby bunnies on Easter, and it's hard to not do so... they are precious. But you've got to know what you're getting into: a healthy bunny can live almost as long as a dog or cat. You'll still have vet bills, you'll still have to clean up after them, and their care and feeding frankly, isn't much cheaper than any other pet. And if you only have one rabbit, you need to socialize it and give it a lot of love and care. And if you don't spend time with your rabbit, then it won't be a good companion to your family. It will likely be terrified of you, and nip and defend itself when bothered. Rabbits aren't dumb - they are, in fact, very smart. They can be house-trained and have very distinct personalities.
I got my first pet rabbit when I was 2 years old - as an Easter present. In fact, I named it Easter Bunny. It was just a little white bunny when I first got it, but it grew and grew until it was so big, I couldn't hold it. Not that I wanted to, it had a tendency to nip and bite and I was terrified of the thing. When my mother would clean its cage, I was responsible for sitting on top of the overturned laundry basket under which Easter Bunny sat. And I would cry and cry, thinking it would bite me, until my mother finished. Easter Bunny lived with us in Switzerland until we moved back to the States. It was given to my kindergarten class back in Zürich and I remember little else. My family didn't dare get another pet until almost 5 years later - this time it was a puppy.
I did not have another pet rabbit until I was done with college. My fiance and I had thought we'd adopt a kitten, but when we went to the shelter, they had rabbits instead. We picked out a mated pair (all our rabbits get fixed, there are more than enough baby rabbits in the world). They had been abused, but they were in a loving foster home and we liked the idea of two rabbits keeping each other company. Matched pairs live longer, happier lives. They take care of each other. Although they showed a bit of aggression from their prior circumstances, we were adults and decided we wanted them. We named them Bit and Nibble and bought all the House Rabbit handbooks we could find. The shelter showed us how to clip their nails and we took them home. We've spoiled them ever since. It's now been many years since either has nipped one of us and they are now almost 12 years old. You can check out some pictures of our various pet rabbits: Rabbits, Rabbits Everywhere! and HOW-TO: Photographing Your Pet Indoors.
There was even a time, when they were younger, that they would hop up into bed with us early in the morning. Bit liked to jump over her baby-fence and come into our room and jump onto our sleeping bodies for some petting. But she'd do this at like 4am, and we'd jump up in bed, startled. She'd then get freaked and leap down off the bed, run down the hall, and we'd hear the crashing as she jumped back into her cage in her bedroom. (Yes, our rabbits have their own room). So we had to stop that, since we were afraid somebody was going to end up hurt.
A pet rabbit is a big responsibility, and don't be fooled by the fact that rabbits are quiet. Rabbits are the ultimate quiet sufferer. You need to pay special attention to make sure you don't miss the subtle signals they give you when something is wrong. Over the years, we've taken in other rabbits who needed special care, often stolen from their mothers before they were weaned, because they were the right size to sell for Easter baskets. Others were the leavings after the Easter season, when no one wanted a rabbit anymore, certainly not an adolescent who was tortured in the pet store but never bought, and ended up aggressive.
Rabbits are not good pets for kids. They need a lot of attention and you need to be always gentle with them. They also like quiet. So if your kid wants a rabbit, get a stuffed one, or a chocolate one. Or go to a petting zoo.
Many of the Easter rabbits given as pets end up abandoned. These rabbits are not wild, and they will often die. Those that don't end up feral, causing all sorts of problems in county parks and the like. Several years ago, a band of feral pet rabbits terrorized the gardens of upscale Los Gatos, California. Seattle's Woodland Park has to do an annual rabbit-catch in order to keep the rabbit-related problems in the park from escalating - property damage has been significant and native species are being pushed out.
Find out more about not owning a rabbit at “Make Mine Chocolate!™”, a campaign to educate the public about the responsibilities of owning a rabbit, in hopes that it will result in fewer cases of mistreatment and abandonment. If you're still set on having a real live rabbit, then I highly recommend the House Rabbit Society, a publically supported non-profit organization dedicated to all things rabbity and the best online rabbit website around.
Posted by sorsha at 2:01 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
March 12, 2006
It's A Predator Party!
When I visited Kruger National Park, my South African friends told me that Satara Restcamp was the predator camp. Located in the center of the park, it's where you go to see the lions, leopards, hyena and cheetah. And see them, we did. In our game drives, we saw several kills, at least five different groups of lions, and two spotted hyena dens.
And it got me thinking, what kind of animal density would give the spot such a good animal-sighting record. Are there other hotspots as well? I went about trying to find out about lion population densities on the web, and it was not particularly easy. So let's look at the numbers I found, shall we?
Lion Densities In African Parks
| Location | Country | # Per 100km² | Source |
| Kruger NP - Central | South Africa | 13 | Siyabona Africa |
| Selous Game Reserve | Tanzania | 8-13 | African Journal of Ecology |
| Chobe NP | Botswana | 37 | AWF Carnivore Project |
| Maasai Mara NR | Kenya | 30 | H. Dublin |
| Ngorongoro Crater | Kenya | 21 | The African Lion Database |
| Queen Elizabeth NP | Uganda | 12 | Lions Of Queen Elizabeth NP |
Counting The Cats
The densities usually just include adults and sub-adults, not cubs (the Uganda report seemed to contain both). This is likely due to the fact that it's hard enough to count lions laying in the shade. Most are counted in sightings of them on the move, hunting, etc. Some do aerial surveys or counts from the ground, but lions are especially difficult to count this way, as are most noctural predators. One study even counted the lion roars in order to determine the population. Here's an example of a lion survey Serengeti Lion Survey.
As an apex predator, one of the major factors in lion population density is the density of their prey. Some researchers have found A Common Rule for the Scaling of Carnivore Density, showing that it takes about 111x as much prey (by weight) to support a given weight of carnivore. Not that the carnivore eats that much, but to scale and support predator-prey populations in an ecosystem.
From what I can tell, low African lion density is about 1-6 lions per 100 square km, medium density is about 7-14, and high lion density runs from around 15-30 lions per 100 square km. There are some great density maps toward the bottom of this report on Estimating The Global Abundance of Top Predators: The Lion In Africa.
In comparison, the mountain lions of the US range from like 0.26-0.59 per 100 km2 in Big Bend Ranch State Park in Texas to upwards of 10 per 100 square miles in the prime mountain lion habitats in California.
You can read more about the African Lion in my special assignment entitled African Field Notes: The Lion.
Posted by sorsha at 10:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The World Was Not Enough: Google Mars
First we had Google Maps, then we could whoosh around the world with Google Earth. Now, global isn't good enough. Google has gone galactic with Google Mars.
Google Mars is actually quite interesting, even for someone who generally prefers to look to Earth as opposed to the stars. Instead of trying to find your house, you can check out the surface of mars, by elevation, visible light, or with infrared. There are also named indexes for the various land forms like mountains, canyons, dunes, plains, ridges, and craters - just click on the Acidalia Colles and it will take you straight to the hill formation on the map. You can also see where all the spacecraft, rovers and such, have landed, as well as their status. Lastly, there's a great index of articles that refer to specific locations on Mars. What a great little learning tool that leverages technology already available in other Google apps. Check it out!
Posted by sorsha at 7:22 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 11, 2006
Cryptids or Circus Critters?
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Mistaken Identity? |
Let's take a moment to thank the franciscan friar William of Ockham (c. 1285–1349) for the following six little Latin words:
Numquam ponenda est pluritas sine necessitate.
In English, it's basically means don't include unnecessary stuff in an explanation. In the world, it's known as the principle of Occam's Razor - the simplest explanation is usually the right one.
So when palentologist Neil Clark noted some striking similarities between a swimming elephant and the infamous Surgeon's photography of the Loch Ness Monster, he began to look deeper. Could this lake legacy really be no more than a circus critter taking a dip? Why not, since his theory seems to explain things pretty well to me.
Paleontologist and painter Neil Clark says the monster was perhaps a paddling pachyderm.
Clark noticed similarities in the hump-and-trunk silhouettes of swimming Indian elephants and the serpentine shapes of 1930s Nessie descriptions and photographs...
Why would an elephant be swimming in a chilly Scottish lake? "The reason why we see elephants in Loch Ness is that circuses used to go along the road to Inverness and have a little rest at the side of the loch and allow the animals to go and have a little swim around," Clark told CBS News.
And there's one more wrinkle in this elephantine mystery. In 1933 a circus promoter in the area—acting perhaps on inside information that the monster was really a big top beast—offered a rich reward for Nessie's capture...
Compare Clark's painting and the Famous Loch Ness Photography at: National Geographic News: Loch Ness Monster Was an Elephant?
Wikipedia has a great list of Notable cryptids, broken down by primates, sea creatures, reptiles and those of questionable classification. It even covers the specific regions, like lakes and mountain ranges, where these supposed critters lurk.
And FYI, the picture above isn't even an elephant. It's an elephant seal.
Posted by sorsha at 6:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 10, 2006
Coevolution: Let's Mutate Together
Biologically speaking, evolution is the process by genetic variations or mutations in individuals become dominant through natural selection, thereby passing those traits to future generations and ultimately resulting in the development of new species. But while many people see evolutionary change as something that takes thousands, millions or billions of years, we often forget that, in reality, change is happening constantly.
When I think of evolution and the genetic mutations, I often envision the process as completely random. Some little bit in the genes gets flipped and if the resulting trait works and helps the host live, then the trait is likely to stick around. If not, the host has no added advantage and therefore its mutation is not likely to stick around. But what is interesting is that while the biochemistry of genetic mutation may very well be random, the selection of advantageous traits is anything but random. Put another way, the how is random (new traits through chance and mutation), but the what (those smart traits that survive) are not random at all.
One should also consider that evolutionary traits compound by nature over time. Once a trait exists, its fair game for further mutations in the future. For example, coloring might become less subtle or venom might become more potent over successive iterations of genetic mutation.
For example, let's look at snow hares - you know, the ones that are brown in summer months and white in the winter? This trait is considered an adaptation for camouflage against predators. Now, it's not outside the realm of possibility that some very fortunate brown hare just happened to get some weird mutation that made her brown in summer and white in winter, all in one go. Perhaps she wasn't eaten and made lots of baby bunnies just like her, solidifiying her trait in future generations. I'm sure that this kind of extreme mutation has happened, but how likely is it, really? Instead, what if the mutation was just a subtle lightening in color in winter, which helped the hare survive. Now the "lighter fur in winter" trait exists... and future cycles of mutation may adjust it as needed. As the hare's prey become accustomed to the coloring change (perhaps by their own mutations for better eyesight or whatever), the hare in turn must adapt again, perhaps its fur lightens further to help it blend in to its environment.
Two species interacting in this fashion, causing mutual evolutionary changes, is called co-evolution. The two species put selective pressures on the other, thereby affecting each others' evolution. One great example of this was covered in an article in Spring 2006's UC Santa Cruz Review Magazine:
In the creeks and woodlands around San Francisco Bay, garter snakes and newts are engaged in a biological arms race—the snakes eat newts, the newts produce a potent neurotoxin in their skin, the snakes evolve resistance to the toxin, the newts evolve to produce more toxin, and so on. While the newts still fall prey to toxin-resistant snakes, even a resistant garter snake may be incapacitated for hours after eating a highly toxic newt.
This situation has evolved over time as a result of “tit for tat” evolutionary changes driven by natural selection—a classic example of the coevolution of two interacting species.
Coevolution shapes all kinds of interactions between species—not only the antagonistic interactions of predators and prey or parasites and their hosts, but also mutually beneficial partnerships like those of flowering plants and their pollinators. In fact, most plants and animals depend on coevolved interactions with other species in order to survive, says John Thompson, an internationally recognized authority on the subject.
“Much of evolution turns out to be coevolution, and ecological communities are based on these deeply coevolved relationships between species,” says Thompson, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz.
More At: UCSC Review: Coevolution by Tim Stephens.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that coevolution happens at a very local level and can happen over a surprisingly short period of time. Individual populations of the same overall species may coevolve into totally different ways. This is interesting when you start to consider how many similar living things exist which are somewhat genetically different, but all came from the same root species. It helps explain why, at a certain point, some mammals entered the water, while others developed more efficient land abilities. These traits could have occured as a result of the same species, living in different pockets of the world and interacting with different predators, prey and other living things.
But this kind of thinking also has serious ramifications when one considers conservation concerns. It seems like when we going about our conservation, we often set aside a single solitary area for the perpetuation of that species. We fence it off and try to keep it as pristine as possible. We might even ship in other populations to this sanctuary. But this subtle but constant evolutionary process is not often taken into account - after all, a grizzly bear is a grizzly bear, regardless of where it was born. They're more or less interchangable within their own species, right? But if you consider that coevolution makes a species more finely tuned for its very specific environment, we could be weakening the genetic strength of the overall species more than we know.
Here's an example of how things might go awry. Yes, it is a hypothetical one. Let's take the orca or killer whale. I've written about the orcas in the past, as they have recently been added to the Endangered Species Listing. If you were to take a resident killer whale and stick him in with a bunch of transient killer whales, you likely wouldn't get very positive results. Despite being the same species, these guys look, act, speak, and eat completely differently. It wouldn't even surprise me if the transients ate the resident killer whale. Not the kind of thing you'd like to see happen with an endangered species.
But it's these kinds of problems you can encounter when you do not take the subtlies of these genetically different populations into account. This could also help explain why relocation of species is often a very high risk enterprise. You might think you're giving the species exactly what it needs to survive, but without taking into account the minute differences in environment, the subject might not be capable of adjusting sufficiently. Research into species must also to take into account diverse populations in order to understand its mysteries.
Posted by sorsha at 5:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 9, 2006
Fewer Swans Aswimming...
When I was little, we lived in Zürich, Switzerland, while my father completed his postdoctorate work. It is there that most of my earliest memories originate. [Warning, musings ahead]
On cold, snowy days in winter, my mother would drag me to the market on a sled and then on the way home, the sled would be piled high with me and the groceries. When we went to pay the rent, the landlord, a rather odd fellow, would always give me a chocolate bar from his freezer chest and pinch my cheek. I ate countless pears off the tree in the back yard without washing them and played naked in the summer under hoses and on the Alpine mountainsides without fear or censure. One of the first things I learned to speak in Swiss-German was how to call for "More Beer" when we would eat out (the beer wenches always thought I was precious) and there are several pictures of me as a toddler, grinning and drooling into an empty beer bottle. In an effort to be frugal, my mother baked and decorated dozens of sugar cookies for our otherwise ornament-less Christmas tree, only to have to do the same again the next day after my father and I had pilfered them off the tree and spoiled our appetites. Later, she would make beautifully decorated homemade chocolate lollipops for Halloween, enough for every trick-or-treater who might come to the door.
Now you better not be getting horrified at this point. I am sharing these HAPPY memories with you to illustrate how things have changed in the 25 years since these events occured. Now I think about how today's kids won't have some of these memories. Well, if they do, their parents might be accused of terrible parenting or end up in jail. Oh, sure, they'll have different memories I never could have had. Hell, my kids will probably have memories of mommy and daddy helping them get past Level 3 on Final Fantasy XVIII. Already our friend's read the text for their kid's GameBoy games for them. I am a bit saddened by the loss of those simple pleasures I grew up with. Will my kids suffer from the lack of them?
It seems as if several factors are converging at once but fear, backed ironically by science, seems to be the main culprit. It all comes down to the dreaded statistics - we hear about every single bad thing on the news every night. The odds are frightening to the point of causing parental paralysis. It's better to keep your kids indoors playing on the Playstation than, heaven forbid, let them outside and out of your sight - they might pick up some germ or get kidnapped or worse. You can Trust No One. Kids don't play naked at the beach anymore for fear of catching the eye of a child molester; you wouldn't dare let your child have a sip of beer for it might stunt their growth or promote future alcoholism. Baking cookies from scratch costs five times more than the ones bought in stores and I won't even start on trick-or-treating. That dying tradition has all the kids in our neighborhood going to the mall on Halloween. It's just f***'n weird.
Back when I was a kid, which really wasn't THAT long ago, these things were relatively harmless. That's not to say that bad things didn't happen - they did. But still, the majority of us turned out ok, except now we're the neurotic parents. It makes me want to know, what are today's simple pleasures? What are tomorrow's?
Today I was listening to a Slate Explainer podcast entitled "Why Are Swans Dropping Like Flies?" about why H5N1 (Avian flu) is killing the swans all over Europe. It reminded me of one of my earliest memories in Zürich. Whenever we would have pancakes for breakfast (it was my favorite, of course, especially when my mother would make Mickey Mouse shaped ones), my mother would make extra pancakes. Later, she and I would walk down to feed them to the swans. Not that the swans really deserved it. They were mean and nasty, always trying to bite us, but they were very pretty and I enjoyed throwing pancakes at them.
Nowadays, I'm always seeing the signs not to feed the birds. I've seen a gull land on a kid's head and gobble up their ice cream cone next to one such sign. It was actually quite traumatic, except the bird. It's pretty clear that feeding birds can often be bad for the for all involved, the birds suffer from eating human foods, it causes unsanitary conditions, blah blah, and now, with bird flu, many parents are downright afraid to allow their children near a bird. Well, at least, if it still looks like a bird - I haven't heard of Happy Meal sales dropping, although after that horrible cartoon in Super Size Me, I haven't been able to make myself eat a McNugget since (I was happier not knowing, you know).
I read a book once about how a genetically-engineered tomato got a disease which virtually wiped out the human race. The survivors were deathly afraid of tomatoes, even at a distance. Even though the disease was long-gone and no one was at risk, people would freak out when one of the red fruits showed up anywhere in their vicinity. The bird flu panic reminds me of this. And so many of our holidays and traditions have bird-themes - from New Year's peace doves to Easter eggs, barbeque on the 4th of July, then Thanksgiving turkey to Christmas goose. Talk about a poultry-industry nightmare. And don't forget that Thursday is inevitably Chicken Nugget day at the school cafeteria (Friday is always Pizza day). It seems weird to me that people would not feed the swans, but they don't really have too many concerns with the fact that your average school cafeteria serves lower-grade meat than most people can buy at the local supermarket.
I guess I feel like people spend so much time worrying, but aren't willing to spend more time just being cautious. And by this, I mean active caution. If you're worried about bird flu, read up on the details, cook your food properly and wash your hands. If you don't feel comfortable letting your kid outside alone, go with them. How many of these problems would be solved if people spent more time getting out their with their children? Despite the fact that we live in a society that allows us the freedom of mobility and communication, fewer and fewer of us know our own neighbors. We have all become strangers. Perhaps that's the real problem, because when things do go wrong - whether it comes in the form of a hurt child or a flu pandemic - you're less likely to get a helping hand from a stranger than you are from a friend.
Posted by sorsha at 2:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 2, 2006
Did You Know? Darwin Ate Armadillos
Did you know that Darwin made evolutionary breakthroughs while eating armadillos?
You Can't Think On An Empty Stomach
It's interesting how often breakthroughs happen by making observations while doing mundane, everyday things like having breakfast. Charles Darwin did just that while on an expedition in Argentina.
He and his coworkers would often catch and eat armadillos at their camp.
Though Darwin was charmed by the armadillos' behavior, he was equally interested in having a fine meal.
"In the morning we had caught an armadillo, which, although a most excellent dish when roasted in its shell, did not make a very substantial breakfast and dinner for two hungry men."
More At: Darwin | American Museum of Natural History
Beginning To See A Trend Here...
Darwin was struck by the similarities between the tasty little armored mammal and some of the fossils he was digging up and studying. Chuck was especially struck by the armadillos resemblence to the long-extinct glyptodont, a giant slow-moving armored creature about the size of a Mini-Cooper.
This discovery led Darwin to look for other such occurences. Over time, he collected many examples of ancient species with living counterparts. Eventually, he brought all his thoughts and findings together in one of the most pivital works in scientific history - The Origin of the Species.
Why did the chicken cross the road? To show the armadillo that it could be done.
Posted by sorsha at 9:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
