Nov 16: An environmental historian looks at our symbiosis with trees and more…
Bird flu, echolocation in humans, elephants using tools, and bumblebee queens.
On this week's episode of Quirks & Quarks with Bob McDonald:
A teen in BC is critically ill with H5N1 bird flu, which has raised concerns about a potential pandemic, since it's not clear how they acquired the virus. Researchers are closely monitoring the virus as it spreads, primarily among animals for changes that could indicate it is spreading more easily in humans. Matthew Miller, the Canada Research Chair of Viral Pandemics from McMaster University, says the timing of this case is particularly concerning given the potential for influenza viruses to mix now that we're heading into flu season and wild birds are migrating.
Echolocation — using sound reflections to sense surroundings — is best known among animals like bats and dolphins. But many blind people have also learned to echolocate, and a new study has shown that sighted people can learn to do it just as effectively as those without sight. Lore Thaler, a professor in psychology and director of the human echolocation lab at Durham University in England, has been training both sighted and non-sighted people to echolocate since 2011. She and her team published their most recent findings in the journal Cerebral Cortex.
An elephant at the Berlin Zoo has learned to manipulate hoses to wash herself, which is fascinating researchers, including Humboldt University PhD student Lena Kaufmann, who is investigating tool use in non-human animals. In a recent study, published in the journal Current Biology, Kaufmann and colleagues gave Mary the elephant different hoses to test her abilities, and she quickly either adapted to use the hoses to meet her end goal, or got frustrated when the hoses didn't work and bit the hose in anger. What's also interesting is a companion pachyderm that has apparently learned to sabotage these showers by kinking the hose.
Researchers were surprised and disturbed to discover that in tests, young queen bumblebees hibernated in pesticide-contaminated soils. During her PhD studies at the University of Guelph, Sabrina Rondeau found that bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) queens seemed to prefer soil samples containing pesticides, even when presented with a pesticide-free soil option. They're not clear on why the bees would prefer soils with pesticides, but are concerned with the impact this might have on their reproduction and survival. The study is published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
There are about three trillion trees on our planet — about four hundred for each of us. And we literally couldn't live without them. They take in millions of tons of carbon dioxide each year, and provide us with oxygen. Saving our forests is a big step toward saving our planet from the challenges from climate change. Daniel Lewis, an environmental historian at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California writes about a dozen of the most exotic, important and interesting species, in his book The Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of our Future.
