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"content": "\u003cp>The mottled spots giraffes are known for aren’t random, according to a new study that suggests the patterns are inherited maternally — and that they may impact the chances of a calf surviving its first few months of life.[contextly_sidebar id=”0MiYKhblKxNoVEDUjyjx4Wb1Fi1GVN65″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The roundness and smoothness of a giraffe’s spots are inherited through its mother, wildlife biology researchers \u003ca href=\"https://peerj.com/articles/5690/\">reported in the academic journal PeerJ\u003c/a> last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Giraffe coat markings are more complex and variable than the eye suggests: The researchers studied 11 spot attributes in total. The researchers did not document any mother-offspring similarity between the number of spots and their area and perimeter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study has produced the first data of its kind. Scientists have previously hypothesized that variation in spot patterns may camouflage newborns against predators, and that the animals’ spots are conferred at random. One prominent biologist, Anne Dagg, described similarities between parents and offspring in a zoo population in 1968, but analysis and objective measurements of spot characteristics were lacking in wild giraffes until now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research was borne out of curiosity for a definitive answer. “We were inspired by so many people’s natural curiosity about giraffe spots and where the patterns come from. It was a consistent theme of question we heard when talking about giraffes,” Derek Lee, principal scientist at the Wild Nature Institute and one of the authors of the study, told NPR. “We began looking for answers in the literature and found nobody had measured complex mammal coat patterns like spots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee and his team conducted their study by using image analysis software to determine the similarity of spot traits between wild Masai mother giraffes and their offspring in Tanzania, where the animals exist free and unfenced across vast landscapes. Over the course of four years, the scientists photographed the coats of 31 sets of mother-calf pairs. They found that some characteristics, like roundness and smoothness, were strongly linked between mother and offspring, and likely to be heritable.[contextly_sidebar id=”oi3a94MN6YmbXUQtGf35Llci0ddLYd5h”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers also examined how well a calf’s spots protected them from predators by allowing them to blend in with their wildlife surroundings. They photographed the same 258 juveniles six times a year for four years, noting when certain juveniles dropped off their radar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team then ran that data through statistical analyses to estimate the likelihood of survival within the group. Calves with larger spots and irregularly shaped spots were more likely to survive their first few months of life, according to their findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This increased survival could reflect better camouflage of these young giraffes, but it also could be related to other survival-enhancing factors, such as temperature regulation or visual communication,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181002082420.htm\">a press release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee adds that other variables like good genes and maternal investment may also be correlated with spot traits. “Other alternative functions of the spots also could be under natural selection at different periods in a giraffe’s lifetime such as temperature regulation or visual signalling to identify individuals and kin,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team hopes their findings will inform further investigations into the “developmental and genetic architecture of complex mammal coat patterns and their adaptive value,” as the study’s conclusion says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Giraffes+Inherit+Spot+Patterns+From+Their+Mamas%2C+Study+Says&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The mottled spots giraffes are known for aren’t random, according to a new study that suggests the patterns are inherited maternally — and that they may impact the chances of a calf surviving its first few months of life.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The roundness and smoothness of a giraffe’s spots are inherited through its mother, wildlife biology researchers \u003ca href=\"https://peerj.com/articles/5690/\">reported in the academic journal PeerJ\u003c/a> last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Giraffe coat markings are more complex and variable than the eye suggests: The researchers studied 11 spot attributes in total. The researchers did not document any mother-offspring similarity between the number of spots and their area and perimeter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study has produced the first data of its kind. Scientists have previously hypothesized that variation in spot patterns may camouflage newborns against predators, and that the animals’ spots are conferred at random. One prominent biologist, Anne Dagg, described similarities between parents and offspring in a zoo population in 1968, but analysis and objective measurements of spot characteristics were lacking in wild giraffes until now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The research was borne out of curiosity for a definitive answer. “We were inspired by so many people’s natural curiosity about giraffe spots and where the patterns come from. It was a consistent theme of question we heard when talking about giraffes,” Derek Lee, principal scientist at the Wild Nature Institute and one of the authors of the study, told NPR. “We began looking for answers in the literature and found nobody had measured complex mammal coat patterns like spots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee and his team conducted their study by using image analysis software to determine the similarity of spot traits between wild Masai mother giraffes and their offspring in Tanzania, where the animals exist free and unfenced across vast landscapes. Over the course of four years, the scientists photographed the coats of 31 sets of mother-calf pairs. They found that some characteristics, like roundness and smoothness, were strongly linked between mother and offspring, and likely to be heritable.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers also examined how well a calf’s spots protected them from predators by allowing them to blend in with their wildlife surroundings. They photographed the same 258 juveniles six times a year for four years, noting when certain juveniles dropped off their radar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team then ran that data through statistical analyses to estimate the likelihood of survival within the group. Calves with larger spots and irregularly shaped spots were more likely to survive their first few months of life, according to their findings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This increased survival could reflect better camouflage of these young giraffes, but it also could be related to other survival-enhancing factors, such as temperature regulation or visual communication,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181002082420.htm\">a press release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lee adds that other variables like good genes and maternal investment may also be correlated with spot traits. “Other alternative functions of the spots also could be under natural selection at different periods in a giraffe’s lifetime such as temperature regulation or visual signalling to identify individuals and kin,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team hopes their findings will inform further investigations into the “developmental and genetic architecture of complex mammal coat patterns and their adaptive value,” as the study’s conclusion says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Giraffes+Inherit+Spot+Patterns+From+Their+Mamas%2C+Study+Says&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Sand Dollar's Breakfast Is Totally Metal",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]Pristine white sand dollars have long been the souvenir to commemorate a successful day at the beach. But most people who pick them up don’t realize that they’ve collected the skeleton of an animal, washed up at the end of a long life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it turns out, scientists say there’s a lot to be said about a sand dollar’s life. That skeleton — also known as a test — is really a tool, a remarkable feat of engineering that allows sand dollars to thrive on the shifting bottom of the sandy seafloor, an environment that most other sea creatures find inhospitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve done something really amazing and different,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/rich-mooi\">Rich Mooi\u003c/a>, a researcher with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. “They’re a pile of novelties, and they’ve gone way off the deep end in modifying their bodies to adapt to where they live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932171\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_sea_urchin_side_view.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1932171\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_sea_urchin_side_view.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pacific sand dollars use the long spines around their edge and underside to crawl along sandy seafloors. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mooi studies \u003ca href=\"https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Echinodermata/\">echinoderms\u003c/a>, a word that roughly translates to “hedgehog skin.” It’s an aptly fitting name for a group that includes sea urchins, sand dollars, sea stars and sea cucumbers. But Mooi said sand dollars really have his heart, in part because of their incredible adaptations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sand dollars are actually a type of sea urchin, one that struck off on its own in an evolutionary pilgrimage to take advantage of a new environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This connection is more obvious when looking at a common feature of the group: symmetry in multiples of five. Starfish have five arms, for example, while the test of a sea urchin is divided into 10 plates: five with tube feet and five with spines. Similarly, a sand dollar has five “petals” that house its specialized breathing tube feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932175\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1932175 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-1020x574.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The skeletons of sand dollars and their relatives, like starfish and sea urchins, show the five-point symmetry that they share. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most sand dollars are solitary and small (up to 3 inches) and can be found along the world’s shorelines to as deep as 130 feet. Researchers are unsure how long they live, with typical estimates ranging from six to 10 years. But recent work on their sea urchin cousins, which traditionally were thought to have a similar life span, suggests they may be among the world’s oldest animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shuffling slowly across the bottom on stiltlike spines, they pick up sand to pass along special feeding grooves, bucket-brigade style, to a mouth on the underside of the disk. The sand dollar’s mouth has a jaw with five teethlike sections, which are the origin of the “doves” in the familiar postcard \u003ca href=\"https://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/f024_SandDollar.htm\">poem\u003c/a> “The Legend of the Sand Dollar.” They use these teeth to grind up sand, but it’s really the coating of microscopic algae and bacteria on each grain that they’re after.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sand dollars are dealing with microscopic things, individual sand grains,” Mooi said. “So their whole body system is adapted to being able to handle small particles.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you picture a sea urchin, you might think of their long, pointy spines and their strong, suctioning tube feet. These are great tools for wedging into crevices and gripping rocks to avoid sudden waves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932177\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_sea_urchin.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1932177\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_sea_urchin.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Compared to most sea urchins, sand dollars appear flatter, with smaller spines \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But on sand, where the very ground is in constant motion, the strategy is to minimize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you pick up any sand dollar and observe it edge-on, it looks like an airplane wing alive with a flurry of activity: tiny spines, tube feet and miniature pincers called pedicellariae that carry out various tasks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or perhaps, said Mooi, a bicycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you imagine yourself riding into the wind on a bicycle, you find yourself hunching over to get down out of the wind,” he said. “You’re trying to minimize drag. That’s what sand dollars have done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And similar to a spoiler on a car, many species have specialized holes in their skeletons known as lunules, which help equalize pressure as water flows over them to greatly reduce lift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932179\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1932179 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-1020x1360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-900x1200.jpg 900w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-1920x2560.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-1180x1573.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-960x1280.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-240x320.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-375x500.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-520x693.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some sand dollar species have holes called lunules to help keep them from being swept away by rushing currents in the ocean. The skeletons of these Rotula deciesdigitatus are part of Rich Mooi’s collection at the California Academy of Sciences. \u003ccite>(Amanda Heidt/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same reason that bombers during World War II couldn’t fly as well when they had holes punched through the wings,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One species on the West Coast of California has taken its body modifications a step beyond. Mooi described the eccentric sand dollar (Dendraster excentricus) as “a weirdo on the West Coast. We like to do things differently here, and sand dollars are no exception.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While sand dollars are usually solitary, these dollars group together in dense purple fields of up to 625 individuals per square yard. Larvae in the water use chemical cues from adults to indicate that they’re in a good place to settle out of the plankton and grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they grow, they develop off-center, with the gills, feeding grooves, reproductive structures, mouth and anus offset to one side of the body. This pattern of development is known as eccentricity, and this is how they get their name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they are large enough to begin feeding, eccentric sand dollars align themselves parallel to the current and tip up on their edges, anchoring one end in the sand while the other sticks into the streaming waters above.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To put it bluntly, “they’ve got their little butts in the air,” Mooi said with a chuckle. “It’s quite brilliant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason: They’re filtering feeders. While most sand dollars move along the bottom, grinding up sand to eat the rich microbial organisms adhered onto them, eccentric sand dollars pluck tasty plankton morsels straight from the current by turning on-end. They’re the only sand dollar species known to feed in this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932182\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_zoom_in_on_spines.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1932182\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_zoom_in_on_spines.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of Pacific sand dollars stand up in the current. They use their spines, tube feet and pedicellariae to catch plankton out of the water. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They’re very hydrodynamically attuned animals,” Mooi said, “and they have this ability to exploit current flows.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another compelling trick: While older sand dollars are heavy enough to keep themselves firmly on the bottom, younger dollars have crafted something that may be familiar to any scuba diver or spear fisherman. They use a weight belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sand is made up of small bits of rock and debris. The rocks along the coast determine which minerals will be present in the sand. Magnetite is one such mineral, an iron-rich deposit named for its magnetic properties. In sand, it is often seen as very small, slightly shiny black specks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932189\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_magnetite.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1932189 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_magnetite.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As they grow, young sand dollars consume particles of an iron ore called magnetite that they store in their bodies, making them heavier and reducing their buoyancy. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Young sand dollars can pick small grains of magnetite from the surrounding sand and store them in specialized chambers of their gut called diverticula. When X-rayed, the magnetite appears as bright patches. They help weigh down the younger dollars, keeping them grounded until they bulk up as adults so they don’t wash away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932192\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1932192\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-1020x574.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">X-ray images of sand dollars show deposits of magnetite inside, seen here in white. \u003ccite>(Rich Mooi/ California Academy of Sciences)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"http://invertebrates.si.edu/mah.htm\">Chris Mah\u003c/a>, a researcher with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., these kinds of behaviors are an elegant example of how evolution can drive species to perfectly adapt to any habitat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With sand dollars, there’s so much of the story of their adaptation to sandy environments that makes sense,” he said, “and it’s hard not to appreciate how lovely they are when they’re arranged in such an ordered, but aesthetically wondrous, pattern.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"headline": "A Sand Dollar's Breakfast Is Totally Metal",
"datePublished": "2018-10-09T06:00:33-07:00",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Pristine white sand dollars have long been the souvenir to commemorate a successful day at the beach. But most people who pick them up don’t realize that they’ve collected the skeleton of an animal, washed up at the end of a long life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it turns out, scientists say there’s a lot to be said about a sand dollar’s life. That skeleton — also known as a test — is really a tool, a remarkable feat of engineering that allows sand dollars to thrive on the shifting bottom of the sandy seafloor, an environment that most other sea creatures find inhospitable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve done something really amazing and different,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/rich-mooi\">Rich Mooi\u003c/a>, a researcher with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. “They’re a pile of novelties, and they’ve gone way off the deep end in modifying their bodies to adapt to where they live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932171\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_sea_urchin_side_view.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1932171\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_sea_urchin_side_view.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pacific sand dollars use the long spines around their edge and underside to crawl along sandy seafloors. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mooi studies \u003ca href=\"https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Echinodermata/\">echinoderms\u003c/a>, a word that roughly translates to “hedgehog skin.” It’s an aptly fitting name for a group that includes sea urchins, sand dollars, sea stars and sea cucumbers. But Mooi said sand dollars really have his heart, in part because of their incredible adaptations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sand dollars are actually a type of sea urchin, one that struck off on its own in an evolutionary pilgrimage to take advantage of a new environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This connection is more obvious when looking at a common feature of the group: symmetry in multiples of five. Starfish have five arms, for example, while the test of a sea urchin is divided into 10 plates: five with tube feet and five with spines. Similarly, a sand dollar has five “petals” that house its specialized breathing tube feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932175\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1932175 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-1020x574.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Starfish_Sea_Urchin_5_point_symmetry_comparison-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The skeletons of sand dollars and their relatives, like starfish and sea urchins, show the five-point symmetry that they share. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most sand dollars are solitary and small (up to 3 inches) and can be found along the world’s shorelines to as deep as 130 feet. Researchers are unsure how long they live, with typical estimates ranging from six to 10 years. But recent work on their sea urchin cousins, which traditionally were thought to have a similar life span, suggests they may be among the world’s oldest animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shuffling slowly across the bottom on stiltlike spines, they pick up sand to pass along special feeding grooves, bucket-brigade style, to a mouth on the underside of the disk. The sand dollar’s mouth has a jaw with five teethlike sections, which are the origin of the “doves” in the familiar postcard \u003ca href=\"https://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/f024_SandDollar.htm\">poem\u003c/a> “The Legend of the Sand Dollar.” They use these teeth to grind up sand, but it’s really the coating of microscopic algae and bacteria on each grain that they’re after.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sand dollars are dealing with microscopic things, individual sand grains,” Mooi said. “So their whole body system is adapted to being able to handle small particles.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you picture a sea urchin, you might think of their long, pointy spines and their strong, suctioning tube feet. These are great tools for wedging into crevices and gripping rocks to avoid sudden waves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932177\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_sea_urchin.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1932177\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_sea_urchin.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Compared to most sea urchins, sand dollars appear flatter, with smaller spines \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But on sand, where the very ground is in constant motion, the strategy is to minimize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you pick up any sand dollar and observe it edge-on, it looks like an airplane wing alive with a flurry of activity: tiny spines, tube feet and miniature pincers called pedicellariae that carry out various tasks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or perhaps, said Mooi, a bicycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you imagine yourself riding into the wind on a bicycle, you find yourself hunching over to get down out of the wind,” he said. “You’re trying to minimize drag. That’s what sand dollars have done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And similar to a spoiler on a car, many species have specialized holes in their skeletons known as lunules, which help equalize pressure as water flows over them to greatly reduce lift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932179\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1932179 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-1020x1360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-900x1200.jpg 900w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-1920x2560.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-1180x1573.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-960x1280.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-240x320.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-375x500.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_-Rotula_deciesdigitatus-520x693.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some sand dollar species have holes called lunules to help keep them from being swept away by rushing currents in the ocean. The skeletons of these Rotula deciesdigitatus are part of Rich Mooi’s collection at the California Academy of Sciences. \u003ccite>(Amanda Heidt/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same reason that bombers during World War II couldn’t fly as well when they had holes punched through the wings,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One species on the West Coast of California has taken its body modifications a step beyond. Mooi described the eccentric sand dollar (Dendraster excentricus) as “a weirdo on the West Coast. We like to do things differently here, and sand dollars are no exception.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While sand dollars are usually solitary, these dollars group together in dense purple fields of up to 625 individuals per square yard. Larvae in the water use chemical cues from adults to indicate that they’re in a good place to settle out of the plankton and grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they grow, they develop off-center, with the gills, feeding grooves, reproductive structures, mouth and anus offset to one side of the body. This pattern of development is known as eccentricity, and this is how they get their name.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they are large enough to begin feeding, eccentric sand dollars align themselves parallel to the current and tip up on their edges, anchoring one end in the sand while the other sticks into the streaming waters above.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To put it bluntly, “they’ve got their little butts in the air,” Mooi said with a chuckle. “It’s quite brilliant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason: They’re filtering feeders. While most sand dollars move along the bottom, grinding up sand to eat the rich microbial organisms adhered onto them, eccentric sand dollars pluck tasty plankton morsels straight from the current by turning on-end. They’re the only sand dollar species known to feed in this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932182\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_zoom_in_on_spines.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1932182\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_zoom_in_on_spines.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of Pacific sand dollars stand up in the current. They use their spines, tube feet and pedicellariae to catch plankton out of the water. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They’re very hydrodynamically attuned animals,” Mooi said, “and they have this ability to exploit current flows.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another compelling trick: While older sand dollars are heavy enough to keep themselves firmly on the bottom, younger dollars have crafted something that may be familiar to any scuba diver or spear fisherman. They use a weight belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sand is made up of small bits of rock and debris. The rocks along the coast determine which minerals will be present in the sand. Magnetite is one such mineral, an iron-rich deposit named for its magnetic properties. In sand, it is often seen as very small, slightly shiny black specks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932189\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_magnetite.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1932189 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_magnetite.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As they grow, young sand dollars consume particles of an iron ore called magnetite that they store in their bodies, making them heavier and reducing their buoyancy. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Young sand dollars can pick small grains of magnetite from the surrounding sand and store them in specialized chambers of their gut called diverticula. When X-rayed, the magnetite appears as bright patches. They help weigh down the younger dollars, keeping them grounded until they bulk up as adults so they don’t wash away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932192\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1932192\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-1020x574.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/DL518_Sand_Dollars_Xray_group_showing_magnetite_deposites_in_white-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">X-ray images of sand dollars show deposits of magnetite inside, seen here in white. \u003ccite>(Rich Mooi/ California Academy of Sciences)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"http://invertebrates.si.edu/mah.htm\">Chris Mah\u003c/a>, a researcher with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., these kinds of behaviors are an elegant example of how evolution can drive species to perfectly adapt to any habitat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With sand dollars, there’s so much of the story of their adaptation to sandy environments that makes sense,” he said, “and it’s hard not to appreciate how lovely they are when they’re arranged in such an ordered, but aesthetically wondrous, pattern.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Odd-Looking Razorback Sucker Fish Pulled Back from Extinction",
"headTitle": "Odd-Looking Razorback Sucker Fish Pulled Back from Extinction | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Another rare Colorado River fish has been pulled back from the brink of extinction, the second comeback this year for a species unique to the Southwestern U.S.[contextly_sidebar id=”BYI9mWuVpb9QTHKLbJd6ZDj5GWZscFJ4″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to announce Thursday that it will recommend reclassifying the ancient and odd-looking razorback sucker from endangered to threatened, meaning it is still at risk of extinction, but the danger is no longer immediate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Associated Press was briefed on the plans before the official announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of thousands of razorbacks once thrived in the Colorado River and its tributaries, which flow across seven states and Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the 1980s they had dwindled to about 100. Researchers blame non-native predator fish that attacked and ate the razorbacks and dams that disrupted their habitat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their numbers have bounced back to between 54,000 and 59,000 today, thanks to a multimillion-dollar effort that enlisted the help of hatcheries, dam operators, landowners, native American tribes and state and federal agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a work in progress,” said Tom Chart, director of the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program. “We get more fish out in the system, they’re showing up in more places, they’re spawning in more locations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chart’s program oversees the campaign to restore the razorback sucker and three other fish, all of them found only in the Colorado River system.[contextly_sidebar id=”y18ri0i7YRNusM4MaupD0rRK3ptnsRkv”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Fish and Wildlife Service recommended changing the humpback chub from endangered to threatened. It takes 18 to 24 months to complete the process, including a public comment period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The razorback sucker’s name comes from a sharp-edge, keel-like ridge along its back behind its head. Chart thinks the ridge may have evolved to help the fish stay stable in the turbulent waters of the Colorado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can grow up to 3 feet (1 meter) long and live up to 40 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Razorbacks have been around for between 3 million and 5 million years, but trouble arrived as the population expanded in the Southwest. State and federal agencies began introducing game fish into the Colorado without realizing they would devour the native fish, Chart said. A spurt of dam-building was a boon to cities and farms but interrupted the natural springtime surge of melting snow, which in turn shrank the floodplains that provided a safe nursery for young razorbacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dams also made parts of the rivers too cold for razorbacks, because they release water from the chilly depths of reservoirs. And they blocked the natural migration of the fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the late 1980s, most of the wild razorbacks were old, an ominous sign they were no longer reproducing, Chart said. The Fish and Wildlife Service began capturing the remaining wild razorbacks and moving them to hatcheries to begin rebuilding the population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency designated razorbacks an endangered species in 1991, although Utah and Colorado enacted state protections earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists began restocking rivers with hatchery-raised razorbacks in 1995. Now, about 55,000 are released into the Colorado and its tributaries annually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fish and Wildlife Service began working with dam operators to time water releases to help razorbacks spawn and restore flood plains for them to mature. Some dams were modified to help razorbacks to get by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildlife officials began reining in non-native predator fish with nets and screens to keep them from escaping reservoirs, or removing them by electrofishing — stunning them with electricity and euthanizing them with an overdose of anesthetic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Changing the fish from endangered to threatened will allow more flexibility in the way it is protected, said Kevin McAbee, deputy director of the recovery program.[contextly_sidebar id=”voKJy4Iqh39xrCR8R6NvLg6qjH81F3ZC”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under endangered status, individual fish have to be protected, but threatened status means biologists can take steps to improve the overall population even if some fish might be hurt, McAbee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Razorbacks still face challenges. The first-year survival rate of hatchery fish, each roughly 14 inches (36 centimeters) long, is about 20 percent or less in the wild, Chart said. It climbs to 80 percent after that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drought, climate change and increasing human demand are straining the rivers, which makes it harder for fish to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McAbee said the Fish and Wildlife Service took the river’s uncertain future into account before recommending the change for the razorbacks. Their long lifespan helps them endure low-water years when few young fish survive, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cooperation among water users in 2018, a year of devastating drought in much of the Southwest, shows the razorbacks’ needs can be accommodated, McAbee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things could have been catastrophic,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity is doubtful about how healthy the razorbacks really are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The government’s reliance on hatcheries to boost the population shows they are not self-sustaining, he said, and he worries about their future in the overtaxed Colorado River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the elephant in the room right now with regard to recovery is climate change and river flows and regional aridification,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re skeptical of the merits of this,” McKinnon said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Another rare Colorado River fish has been pulled back from the brink of extinction, the second comeback this year for a species unique to the Southwestern U.S.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to announce Thursday that it will recommend reclassifying the ancient and odd-looking razorback sucker from endangered to threatened, meaning it is still at risk of extinction, but the danger is no longer immediate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Associated Press was briefed on the plans before the official announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of thousands of razorbacks once thrived in the Colorado River and its tributaries, which flow across seven states and Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the 1980s they had dwindled to about 100. Researchers blame non-native predator fish that attacked and ate the razorbacks and dams that disrupted their habitat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their numbers have bounced back to between 54,000 and 59,000 today, thanks to a multimillion-dollar effort that enlisted the help of hatcheries, dam operators, landowners, native American tribes and state and federal agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a work in progress,” said Tom Chart, director of the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program. “We get more fish out in the system, they’re showing up in more places, they’re spawning in more locations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chart’s program oversees the campaign to restore the razorback sucker and three other fish, all of them found only in the Colorado River system.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Fish and Wildlife Service recommended changing the humpback chub from endangered to threatened. It takes 18 to 24 months to complete the process, including a public comment period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The razorback sucker’s name comes from a sharp-edge, keel-like ridge along its back behind its head. Chart thinks the ridge may have evolved to help the fish stay stable in the turbulent waters of the Colorado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can grow up to 3 feet (1 meter) long and live up to 40 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Razorbacks have been around for between 3 million and 5 million years, but trouble arrived as the population expanded in the Southwest. State and federal agencies began introducing game fish into the Colorado without realizing they would devour the native fish, Chart said. A spurt of dam-building was a boon to cities and farms but interrupted the natural springtime surge of melting snow, which in turn shrank the floodplains that provided a safe nursery for young razorbacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dams also made parts of the rivers too cold for razorbacks, because they release water from the chilly depths of reservoirs. And they blocked the natural migration of the fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the late 1980s, most of the wild razorbacks were old, an ominous sign they were no longer reproducing, Chart said. The Fish and Wildlife Service began capturing the remaining wild razorbacks and moving them to hatcheries to begin rebuilding the population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency designated razorbacks an endangered species in 1991, although Utah and Colorado enacted state protections earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists began restocking rivers with hatchery-raised razorbacks in 1995. Now, about 55,000 are released into the Colorado and its tributaries annually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fish and Wildlife Service began working with dam operators to time water releases to help razorbacks spawn and restore flood plains for them to mature. Some dams were modified to help razorbacks to get by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildlife officials began reining in non-native predator fish with nets and screens to keep them from escaping reservoirs, or removing them by electrofishing — stunning them with electricity and euthanizing them with an overdose of anesthetic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Changing the fish from endangered to threatened will allow more flexibility in the way it is protected, said Kevin McAbee, deputy director of the recovery program.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under endangered status, individual fish have to be protected, but threatened status means biologists can take steps to improve the overall population even if some fish might be hurt, McAbee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Razorbacks still face challenges. The first-year survival rate of hatchery fish, each roughly 14 inches (36 centimeters) long, is about 20 percent or less in the wild, Chart said. It climbs to 80 percent after that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drought, climate change and increasing human demand are straining the rivers, which makes it harder for fish to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McAbee said the Fish and Wildlife Service took the river’s uncertain future into account before recommending the change for the razorbacks. Their long lifespan helps them endure low-water years when few young fish survive, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cooperation among water users in 2018, a year of devastating drought in much of the Southwest, shows the razorbacks’ needs can be accommodated, McAbee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things could have been catastrophic,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity is doubtful about how healthy the razorbacks really are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The government’s reliance on hatcheries to boost the population shows they are not self-sustaining, he said, and he worries about their future in the overtaxed Colorado River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the elephant in the room right now with regard to recovery is climate change and river flows and regional aridification,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re skeptical of the merits of this,” McKinnon said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=vQ1jnbIX8wA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The venomous fangs of a copperhead snake are one thing. But the recent sighting of a rare two-headed snake in Northern Virginia is alarming — and mesmerizing — both social media spectators and scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, a Woodbridge resident stumbled upon the young mutant reptile in a neighbor’s yard. “I wanted to look away but couldn’t stop looking at it. Plays trick[s] on the eyes,” Stephanie Myers told \u003cem>USA Today\u003c/em> after finding the snake and posting photos of it to \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100971479165557&set=a.10100533113229407&type=3&theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">her Facebook page\u003c/a>.[contextly_sidebar id=”If7PKb89y3ARuZNKnaBQ9zxwvHMQTfNG”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s even more exceptional is that the snake was discovered alive, according to state herpetologist J.D. Kleopfer, a reptiles and amphibians specialist at the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two-headed copperhead snakes are “extremely rare” to find in the wild, Kleopfer told NPR’s Scott Simon on \u003cem>Weekend Edition \u003c/em>Saturday. Their competing heads often contribute to their short life span. “They can’t coordinate escaping from predators and they can’t coordinate capturing foods, so they tend to not live,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily, the rest of the baby viper’s anatomy is shared, Kleopfer says, which means that “both heads are getting the nutrition they need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a news release, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildlifecenter.org/news_events/news/two-headed-copperhead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wildlife Center of Virginia says \u003c/a>Kleopfer brought the snake to the hospital on Sept. 20 for an examination. X-rays revealed that one head has a more developed esophagus, Kleopfer says, while the other has a more developed throat. “Based on that, we’re just attempting to feed the [left] head,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the left head appears more dominant, the wildlife center adds. “It’s generally more active and responsive to stimulus,” the release reads. “It would be better for the right head to eat, but it may be a challenge since the left head appears more dominant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That unusual mutation also prevents the snake’s heads from quarreling with each other over the same food. Instead, Kleopfer says, the separated heads “seemed to be oblivious to each other.”[contextly_sidebar id=”EcqkhIpqtR0RZYt3OixE5LMSv7liOKip”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gender is still unknown, but Kleopfer estimates the baby viper to be about 3 weeks old and 6 to 8 inches long. Copperheads typically reach \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/snakes/types.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">18 to 36 inches\u003c/a> in length. The scientist says a private keeper who specializes in vipers for zoological facilities is currently caring for the snake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.livescience.com/43641-copperhead-snake.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Venomous copperheads\u003c/a> are a fairly common sighting for U.S. residents, especially in the Southeastern United States or in forested, temperate climates. Captive-bred two-headed snakes are slightly more common, he says, “but that’s usually the result of inbreeding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kleopfer has been in the field of herpetology for some 30 years. Still, he says, “This is definitely a first” and an “extraordinarily rare” sighting that few of his colleagues have seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hesitates to name the snake, as his goal right now is to keep it alive. If it survives, he says he hopes to donate the snake to a zoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the current state of the snake, Kleoper tells in NPR in a follow-up email, “The little guy or girl is doing well. It [has] eaten and pooped, which are excellent signs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR’s Sarah Handel and Viet Le produced and edited the story for broadcast.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=WATCH%3A+%27Extremely+Rare%27+2-Headed+Snake+Stuns+Social+Media%2C+Charms+Scientists&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/vQ1jnbIX8wA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/vQ1jnbIX8wA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The venomous fangs of a copperhead snake are one thing. But the recent sighting of a rare two-headed snake in Northern Virginia is alarming — and mesmerizing — both social media spectators and scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, a Woodbridge resident stumbled upon the young mutant reptile in a neighbor’s yard. “I wanted to look away but couldn’t stop looking at it. Plays trick[s] on the eyes,” Stephanie Myers told \u003cem>USA Today\u003c/em> after finding the snake and posting photos of it to \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100971479165557&set=a.10100533113229407&type=3&theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">her Facebook page\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s even more exceptional is that the snake was discovered alive, according to state herpetologist J.D. Kleopfer, a reptiles and amphibians specialist at the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two-headed copperhead snakes are “extremely rare” to find in the wild, Kleopfer told NPR’s Scott Simon on \u003cem>Weekend Edition \u003c/em>Saturday. Their competing heads often contribute to their short life span. “They can’t coordinate escaping from predators and they can’t coordinate capturing foods, so they tend to not live,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Luckily, the rest of the baby viper’s anatomy is shared, Kleopfer says, which means that “both heads are getting the nutrition they need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a news release, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildlifecenter.org/news_events/news/two-headed-copperhead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wildlife Center of Virginia says \u003c/a>Kleopfer brought the snake to the hospital on Sept. 20 for an examination. X-rays revealed that one head has a more developed esophagus, Kleopfer says, while the other has a more developed throat. “Based on that, we’re just attempting to feed the [left] head,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because the left head appears more dominant, the wildlife center adds. “It’s generally more active and responsive to stimulus,” the release reads. “It would be better for the right head to eat, but it may be a challenge since the left head appears more dominant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That unusual mutation also prevents the snake’s heads from quarreling with each other over the same food. Instead, Kleopfer says, the separated heads “seemed to be oblivious to each other.”\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gender is still unknown, but Kleopfer estimates the baby viper to be about 3 weeks old and 6 to 8 inches long. Copperheads typically reach \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/snakes/types.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">18 to 36 inches\u003c/a> in length. The scientist says a private keeper who specializes in vipers for zoological facilities is currently caring for the snake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.livescience.com/43641-copperhead-snake.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Venomous copperheads\u003c/a> are a fairly common sighting for U.S. residents, especially in the Southeastern United States or in forested, temperate climates. Captive-bred two-headed snakes are slightly more common, he says, “but that’s usually the result of inbreeding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kleopfer has been in the field of herpetology for some 30 years. Still, he says, “This is definitely a first” and an “extraordinarily rare” sighting that few of his colleagues have seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hesitates to name the snake, as his goal right now is to keep it alive. If it survives, he says he hopes to donate the snake to a zoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the current state of the snake, Kleoper tells in NPR in a follow-up email, “The little guy or girl is doing well. It [has] eaten and pooped, which are excellent signs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR’s Sarah Handel and Viet Le produced and edited the story for broadcast.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=WATCH%3A+%27Extremely+Rare%27+2-Headed+Snake+Stuns+Social+Media%2C+Charms+Scientists&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"headTitle": "Watch a Sea Lion Slap a Kayaker Right Across the Face — With an Octopus | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m7-_Lo23BI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A sea lion smacks a kayaker with an octopus, and the video capturing the unlikely encounter quickly becomes a viral sensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conflict between man and beasts happened off the coast of New Zealand’s South Island.[contextly_sidebar id=”ghxWvrHRBgGdxjEuWhHZmbAU4Zu46Tqj”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taiyo Masuda, Kyle Mulinder and friends were going for a paddle off the coast of Kaikoura. Masuda’s camera follows the sea lion as it zips beneath the ocean’s surface and pops up a couple of feet from Mulinder and flings an octopus his way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whoa!” Masuda shouts, as Mulinder shakes his head and looks back into the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not sure who got more of a surprise: the seal, the octopus, or me,” Mulinder wrote on Instagram in a comment about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BoD3bluhKmS/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what exactly was the sea lion up to?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For answers, we turned to two scientists who know something about what makes sea lions tick: \u003ca href=\"https://pinnipedlab.ucsc.edu/staff/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colleen Reichmuth\u003c/a>, a principal investigator and associate research scientist at the University of Santa Cruz’s Institute of Marine Sciences, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncf.edu/directory/listing/peter-cook/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peter Cook\u003c/a>, an assistant professor of psychology at the New College of Florida who studies animal cognition and has experience with sea lions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First off, they wanted to make clear that the \u003ca href=\"http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/education/marine-mammal-information/pinnipeds/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pinniped\u003c/a> in question was indeed a sea lion, not a seal. Cook guesses the star of the show might be a New Zealand sea lion based on the whereabouts, but he couldn’t be completely sure from the video alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea lions and fur seals belong to the \u003cem>otariid\u003c/em> family and are sometimes called “eared seals.” Unlike true seals, however, they have external ear flaps and big front flippers, which allow them to be more active on land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behaviorally, Cook says, sea lions are more outgoing than seals and have a more flexible foraging ecology, meaning that they eat a wider variety of things — crabs, squids, octopuses, really anything they can get a hold of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea lions also eat their prey in much less predictable ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might be sea lions’ tendency to play that gives them their complex feeding behaviors, Cook says. Sea lions spend anywhere from nine months to two years with their mothers before venturing out on their own. During that period, they are being fed milk by their mother and have a lot of free time, most of which they use to play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In animal behavior work, we tend to think of play as a way that an animal learns and sort of preps itself to take on a more complicated set of potential behaviors as an adult,” Cook says.[contextly_sidebar id=”Gnrop7MagV2hqEmaoboJSpKPnbL1GSHZ”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So was the sea lion just playing with the octopus?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to say, Cook says, but it’s possible. “They do like to fiddle with their food, and throwing an octopus around could be pretty fun,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cook says he has witnessed sea lions in captivity playing with leftover food after finishing a meal. For half an hour or so, a sea lion might throw a piece of fish up and down, playing catch with itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Cook, a sign that this sea lion might have been messing around with the octopus is that after the smacking incident, the sea lion circles back, swimming very slowly. The way it turns and flops its flipper tells Cook that it’s pretty relaxed, and sea lions are not usually relaxed when they’re chasing down food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, sea lions also sometimes throw their food around to make it easier to eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reichmuth says the video could portray typical sea lion foraging. “The behavior in that video is pretty normal behavior for a sea lion that is feeding on prey that is too big to swallow whole,” Reichmuth says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea lions don’t have grinding teeth, so while they can hold onto a slippery fish or octopus, they can’t chew it well. Instead, they bring the prey to the surface and smash it on the water to break it into bite-size pieces, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reichmuth and Cook agree that it is entirely likely a feeding sea lion would have flung the octopus out of the water and smashed it on the surface, whether the kayakers had been there or not.[contextly_sidebar id=”dlYACemdcmpxPqxXZvRyxsQp0WHMXDPO”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea lions typically regard humans with indifference. “They definitely will approach people and look at them, but they mostly just do their own thing,” Cook says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it’s unlikely the sea lion was using the octopus as a weapon to fight the humans, according to Cook. “The idea of a sea lion hitting a person aggressively with an object — I’ve never heard of that happening. I’d be very surprised,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even though sea lions can be indifferent toward humans, it doesn’t mean they can’t be bugged by us, Reichmuth says. “Sea lions are playful animals, but that doesn’t mean they’re not disturbed by the presence of people,” she says, especially when they are carrying out biologically important activities like foraging for food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The kayakers, she says, most likely paddled into an area where the sea lion was feeding, putting them in the line of fire. “You see the animal surface a few times, so [the kayakers] probably were not where they should have been, maybe a little too close to feeding animals,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This makes her think that while the video is entertaining, it also evokes a larger issue: the encroachment of people into wildlife areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Common courtesy for wildlife, she says, is to stay well away from the “threshold of response,” which is when animals alter their behavior because of human presence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, though, it’s hard to know with certainty what the now world famous sea lion was doing with the octopus, or if its behavior was affected by the kayakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anytime someone witnesses a novel sea lion behavior, or the unexpected actions of any behaviorally flexible animal, Cook says, there’s often speculation about why it might have done it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frequently people observe sea lions doing new things that we did not know they could do,” Cook says. “There are always a lot of questions, and we make our best guess. But, yeah, they can surprise you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rachel D. Cohen is an intern on NPR’s Science Desk.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Why+Did+An+Octopus-Wielding+Sea+Lion+Slap+A+Kayaker+In+The+Face%3F&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A sea lion in a viral video was probably just messing around with its food. Researchers say sea lions don't care enough about humans to want to slap one of us with an octopus.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/7m7-_Lo23BI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/7m7-_Lo23BI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>A sea lion smacks a kayaker with an octopus, and the video capturing the unlikely encounter quickly becomes a viral sensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conflict between man and beasts happened off the coast of New Zealand’s South Island.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taiyo Masuda, Kyle Mulinder and friends were going for a paddle off the coast of Kaikoura. Masuda’s camera follows the sea lion as it zips beneath the ocean’s surface and pops up a couple of feet from Mulinder and flings an octopus his way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whoa!” Masuda shouts, as Mulinder shakes his head and looks back into the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not sure who got more of a surprise: the seal, the octopus, or me,” Mulinder wrote on Instagram in a comment about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BoD3bluhKmS/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what exactly was the sea lion up to?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For answers, we turned to two scientists who know something about what makes sea lions tick: \u003ca href=\"https://pinnipedlab.ucsc.edu/staff/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colleen Reichmuth\u003c/a>, a principal investigator and associate research scientist at the University of Santa Cruz’s Institute of Marine Sciences, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncf.edu/directory/listing/peter-cook/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peter Cook\u003c/a>, an assistant professor of psychology at the New College of Florida who studies animal cognition and has experience with sea lions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First off, they wanted to make clear that the \u003ca href=\"http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/education/marine-mammal-information/pinnipeds/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pinniped\u003c/a> in question was indeed a sea lion, not a seal. Cook guesses the star of the show might be a New Zealand sea lion based on the whereabouts, but he couldn’t be completely sure from the video alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea lions and fur seals belong to the \u003cem>otariid\u003c/em> family and are sometimes called “eared seals.” Unlike true seals, however, they have external ear flaps and big front flippers, which allow them to be more active on land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behaviorally, Cook says, sea lions are more outgoing than seals and have a more flexible foraging ecology, meaning that they eat a wider variety of things — crabs, squids, octopuses, really anything they can get a hold of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea lions also eat their prey in much less predictable ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might be sea lions’ tendency to play that gives them their complex feeding behaviors, Cook says. Sea lions spend anywhere from nine months to two years with their mothers before venturing out on their own. During that period, they are being fed milk by their mother and have a lot of free time, most of which they use to play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In animal behavior work, we tend to think of play as a way that an animal learns and sort of preps itself to take on a more complicated set of potential behaviors as an adult,” Cook says.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So was the sea lion just playing with the octopus?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to say, Cook says, but it’s possible. “They do like to fiddle with their food, and throwing an octopus around could be pretty fun,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cook says he has witnessed sea lions in captivity playing with leftover food after finishing a meal. For half an hour or so, a sea lion might throw a piece of fish up and down, playing catch with itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Cook, a sign that this sea lion might have been messing around with the octopus is that after the smacking incident, the sea lion circles back, swimming very slowly. The way it turns and flops its flipper tells Cook that it’s pretty relaxed, and sea lions are not usually relaxed when they’re chasing down food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, sea lions also sometimes throw their food around to make it easier to eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reichmuth says the video could portray typical sea lion foraging. “The behavior in that video is pretty normal behavior for a sea lion that is feeding on prey that is too big to swallow whole,” Reichmuth says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea lions don’t have grinding teeth, so while they can hold onto a slippery fish or octopus, they can’t chew it well. Instead, they bring the prey to the surface and smash it on the water to break it into bite-size pieces, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reichmuth and Cook agree that it is entirely likely a feeding sea lion would have flung the octopus out of the water and smashed it on the surface, whether the kayakers had been there or not.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sea lions typically regard humans with indifference. “They definitely will approach people and look at them, but they mostly just do their own thing,” Cook says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So it’s unlikely the sea lion was using the octopus as a weapon to fight the humans, according to Cook. “The idea of a sea lion hitting a person aggressively with an object — I’ve never heard of that happening. I’d be very surprised,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even though sea lions can be indifferent toward humans, it doesn’t mean they can’t be bugged by us, Reichmuth says. “Sea lions are playful animals, but that doesn’t mean they’re not disturbed by the presence of people,” she says, especially when they are carrying out biologically important activities like foraging for food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The kayakers, she says, most likely paddled into an area where the sea lion was feeding, putting them in the line of fire. “You see the animal surface a few times, so [the kayakers] probably were not where they should have been, maybe a little too close to feeding animals,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This makes her think that while the video is entertaining, it also evokes a larger issue: the encroachment of people into wildlife areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Common courtesy for wildlife, she says, is to stay well away from the “threshold of response,” which is when animals alter their behavior because of human presence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, though, it’s hard to know with certainty what the now world famous sea lion was doing with the octopus, or if its behavior was affected by the kayakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anytime someone witnesses a novel sea lion behavior, or the unexpected actions of any behaviorally flexible animal, Cook says, there’s often speculation about why it might have done it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frequently people observe sea lions doing new things that we did not know they could do,” Cook says. “There are always a lot of questions, and we make our best guess. But, yeah, they can surprise you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rachel D. Cohen is an intern on NPR’s Science Desk.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Why+Did+An+Octopus-Wielding+Sea+Lion+Slap+A+Kayaker+In+The+Face%3F&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Scientists Uncover Genetic Basis for Toxic Algal Blooms",
"headTitle": "Scientists Uncover Genetic Basis for Toxic Algal Blooms | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Despite decades of research, the trigger that causes algal blooms to begin poisoning their environment has long confounded scientists. [contextly_sidebar id=”fnAsXqYMH2wXuMPiM7XaZXpzPiY89ReR”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, researchers from Scripps and UC San Diego have found the genetic underpinning of domoic acid, a harmful neurotoxin. In a new study published in \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6409/1356\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science\u003c/a>, \u003c/em>researchers describe three genes responsible for producing domoic acid in the phytoplankton \u003cem>Pseudo-nitzschia. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monitoring how the cluster of genes behave could one day yield information on which environmental or biological triggers are responsible for activating them, according to Bradley Moore, a professor of marine chemical biology and geneticist at Scripps and UC San Diego. That information could help fisheries and public health officials predict when harmful algal blooms will occur, allowing them to effectively prepare. [contextly_sidebar id=”wBZEargCce4eVX1RDaJLL0oQY2wnfmtJ”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore says that the “very small” cluster of genes responsible for the production of the toxin is a relatively rare phenomena compared to other similar organisms, indicating that they may serve some important biological function.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not there to make us sick. There are different theories for why it’s there, including serving as a feeding deterrent,” says Moore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore speculates the toxin may deter organisms that would feed upon the algae. Or it may be that the toxin allows algae to chemically bond to nutrients, such as iron, present in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The discovery of these genes will allow us to explore these theories,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore and his colleagues focused on \u003cem>Pseudo-nitzschia\u003c/em> because it occasionally causes serious economic and environmental damage along coastal communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, closures due to toxic blooms have become increasingly common. Several popular swimming areas in the Bay Area, including Lake Temescal and Quarry Lakes, were shut down for most of the summer due to harmful algae blooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/Facilities/Facility/Details/Lake-Cunningham-Park-179\">San Jose’s Lake Cunningham\u003c/a> has been closed since January and has yet to reopen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In humans, the toxin can cause rashes, skin lesions, headaches and stomach pain. \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Toxic-algae-kills-2-dogs-after-swim-in-Napa-11260421.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">There have also been cases\u003c/a> of animals dying in Napa County from swallowing the contaminated water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To monitor local bloom sightings online, check out the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mywaterquality.ca.gov/habs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harmful Algae Bloom Portal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Despite decades of research, the trigger that causes algal blooms to begin poisoning their environment has long confounded scientists. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, researchers from Scripps and UC San Diego have found the genetic underpinning of domoic acid, a harmful neurotoxin. In a new study published in \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6409/1356\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science\u003c/a>, \u003c/em>researchers describe three genes responsible for producing domoic acid in the phytoplankton \u003cem>Pseudo-nitzschia. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monitoring how the cluster of genes behave could one day yield information on which environmental or biological triggers are responsible for activating them, according to Bradley Moore, a professor of marine chemical biology and geneticist at Scripps and UC San Diego. That information could help fisheries and public health officials predict when harmful algal blooms will occur, allowing them to effectively prepare. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore says that the “very small” cluster of genes responsible for the production of the toxin is a relatively rare phenomena compared to other similar organisms, indicating that they may serve some important biological function.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not there to make us sick. There are different theories for why it’s there, including serving as a feeding deterrent,” says Moore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore speculates the toxin may deter organisms that would feed upon the algae. Or it may be that the toxin allows algae to chemically bond to nutrients, such as iron, present in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The discovery of these genes will allow us to explore these theories,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore and his colleagues focused on \u003cem>Pseudo-nitzschia\u003c/em> because it occasionally causes serious economic and environmental damage along coastal communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, closures due to toxic blooms have become increasingly common. Several popular swimming areas in the Bay Area, including Lake Temescal and Quarry Lakes, were shut down for most of the summer due to harmful algae blooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/Facilities/Facility/Details/Lake-Cunningham-Park-179\">San Jose’s Lake Cunningham\u003c/a> has been closed since January and has yet to reopen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In humans, the toxin can cause rashes, skin lesions, headaches and stomach pain. \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Toxic-algae-kills-2-dogs-after-swim-in-Napa-11260421.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">There have also been cases\u003c/a> of animals dying in Napa County from swallowing the contaminated water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To monitor local bloom sightings online, check out the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mywaterquality.ca.gov/habs/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harmful Algae Bloom Portal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Global warming could drive many small animals and plants to extinction, according to the first study to measure the impact of climate change on America’s national parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Researchers found that the average temperatures in national parks increased at twice the rate as the rest of the nation.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Unless action is taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions, higher temperatures\u003ca href=\"http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aade09\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> could virtually eliminate the habitats\u003c/a> of small mammals, such as the mountain-dwelling \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1915117/climate-change-spells-extinction-for-pikas-of-lake-tahoe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American pika\u003c/a>, according to the study, which appears in the journal \u003cem>Environmental Research Letters\u003c/em>. The pika has become a kind of poster critter for climate threats, as it can only survive at high elevations, where temperatures remain cool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Human-caused emissions [are] shifting warmth up mountains, which could destroy suitable habitats from the tops of these mountains,” says Patrick Gonzales, a climate change scientist at UC Berkeley and lead author of the study. “We have more leverage to deal with this now, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that could harm small mammals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National parks are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because they’re often located in regions that are hardest hit by global warming, such as at high elevation or upper latitudes. Researchers found that the average temperatures in national parks increased at twice the rate as the rest of the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parks also experienced a significant decline in annual rainfall compared to the U.S. as a whole, according to the joint study by UC Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the current rate of emissions, temperatures in the most vulnerable parks could soar by as much as 16 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 — a rate that gives species little time to adapt or migrate to more suitable climates, if there are any.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings are “bad news” for biodiversity, according to Rodolfo Dirzo, a biologist at Stanford University, who was not part of the study team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since protected areas represent currently one of our best instruments to protect biodiversity, the fact that North American parks are going to experience such drastic changes in their climatic conditions is a critical message,” says Dirzo.[contextly_sidebar id=”2cAvntmHbAEBZ68IS79VMx3mCv8vcGuI”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He notes that many populations of small animals and plants are typically less vulnerable to anthropogenic warming, so the fact that these same populations are expected to experience such formidable challenges demands “immediate, effective action to prevent massive declines of our already threatened biodiversity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Changing climate conditions in our national parks also increases human vulnerability, according to Gonzalez. He points to San Francisco residents’ reliance on the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s essential that park officials conserve the watershed so that water is plentiful and clean for human consumption,” says Gonzalez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mapping Climate Change\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers made their projections using data collected from weather stations located throughout the U.S. that track monthly temperature and rainfall going back to 1895.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They created maps of the average annual temperature and rainfall amounts throughout the country, at points approximately 800 meters apart. They then compared the maps to historical temperature and rainfall data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data revealed that on average, temperatures in national parks increased by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit from 1895 to 2010 — roughly twice the warming experienced by the rest of the country. [contextly_sidebar id=”fsagCxvrtz8z5M5LkPwG8EXRRv8an2eW”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National parks also saw a 12 percent decline in rainfall compared to 3 percent for the U.S. at large.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National parks in Alaska endured the greatest increases, while rainfall decreased the most in Hawaii.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers also estimated future changes in temperature and precipitation using four different climate scenarios developed by the United Nations’ \u003ca href=\"http://www.ipcc.ch/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scenarios include one where no action is taken to reduce emissions, one based on commitments made in the \u003ca href=\"https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paris Agreement \u003c/a>on climate three years ago, and two that range somewhere in the middle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the most extreme climate change scenario, the study found that the collective average temperature of all the national parks could rise between 9 and 13 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Abiding by the Paris Agreement could limit this rise to between roughly 2 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under both scenarios, projected temperature increases are greatest in Alaska’s national parks, while rainfall decreases most in the Virgin Islands and the southwestern U.S.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers hope that the maps can aid park officials in developing stronger measures to protect endangered species and park resources from the impacts of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our results show that reducing pollution from human resources can save parks from the most extreme heat,” says Gonzalez. “Compared to the highest emissions scenario, a scenario of adhering to the Paris Agreement would lower the rate of heating in parks by two-thirds by the end of the century.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings, he says, only underscore the National Park Service’s mandate of protecting parks for future generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The data can point parks in the direction of conserving the most vulnerable places or potential \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS713US713&ei=Ed2qW-BnsdL0A8-AiagF&q=refugia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">refugia\u003c/a>, which are stable places that might provide shelter to plant and animal species,” he says. “The future of these national parks is in our hands.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Global warming could drive many small animals and plants to extinction, according to the first study to measure the impact of climate change on America’s national parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Researchers found that the average temperatures in national parks increased at twice the rate as the rest of the nation.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Unless action is taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions, higher temperatures\u003ca href=\"http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aade09\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> could virtually eliminate the habitats\u003c/a> of small mammals, such as the mountain-dwelling \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1915117/climate-change-spells-extinction-for-pikas-of-lake-tahoe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American pika\u003c/a>, according to the study, which appears in the journal \u003cem>Environmental Research Letters\u003c/em>. The pika has become a kind of poster critter for climate threats, as it can only survive at high elevations, where temperatures remain cool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Human-caused emissions [are] shifting warmth up mountains, which could destroy suitable habitats from the tops of these mountains,” says Patrick Gonzales, a climate change scientist at UC Berkeley and lead author of the study. “We have more leverage to deal with this now, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that could harm small mammals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National parks are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because they’re often located in regions that are hardest hit by global warming, such as at high elevation or upper latitudes. Researchers found that the average temperatures in national parks increased at twice the rate as the rest of the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parks also experienced a significant decline in annual rainfall compared to the U.S. as a whole, according to the joint study by UC Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the current rate of emissions, temperatures in the most vulnerable parks could soar by as much as 16 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 — a rate that gives species little time to adapt or migrate to more suitable climates, if there are any.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings are “bad news” for biodiversity, according to Rodolfo Dirzo, a biologist at Stanford University, who was not part of the study team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Since protected areas represent currently one of our best instruments to protect biodiversity, the fact that North American parks are going to experience such drastic changes in their climatic conditions is a critical message,” says Dirzo.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He notes that many populations of small animals and plants are typically less vulnerable to anthropogenic warming, so the fact that these same populations are expected to experience such formidable challenges demands “immediate, effective action to prevent massive declines of our already threatened biodiversity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Changing climate conditions in our national parks also increases human vulnerability, according to Gonzalez. He points to San Francisco residents’ reliance on the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s essential that park officials conserve the watershed so that water is plentiful and clean for human consumption,” says Gonzalez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mapping Climate Change\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers made their projections using data collected from weather stations located throughout the U.S. that track monthly temperature and rainfall going back to 1895.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They created maps of the average annual temperature and rainfall amounts throughout the country, at points approximately 800 meters apart. They then compared the maps to historical temperature and rainfall data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data revealed that on average, temperatures in national parks increased by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit from 1895 to 2010 — roughly twice the warming experienced by the rest of the country. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National parks also saw a 12 percent decline in rainfall compared to 3 percent for the U.S. at large.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>National parks in Alaska endured the greatest increases, while rainfall decreased the most in Hawaii.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers also estimated future changes in temperature and precipitation using four different climate scenarios developed by the United Nations’ \u003ca href=\"http://www.ipcc.ch/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scenarios include one where no action is taken to reduce emissions, one based on commitments made in the \u003ca href=\"https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paris Agreement \u003c/a>on climate three years ago, and two that range somewhere in the middle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the most extreme climate change scenario, the study found that the collective average temperature of all the national parks could rise between 9 and 13 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Abiding by the Paris Agreement could limit this rise to between roughly 2 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under both scenarios, projected temperature increases are greatest in Alaska’s national parks, while rainfall decreases most in the Virgin Islands and the southwestern U.S.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers hope that the maps can aid park officials in developing stronger measures to protect endangered species and park resources from the impacts of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our results show that reducing pollution from human resources can save parks from the most extreme heat,” says Gonzalez. “Compared to the highest emissions scenario, a scenario of adhering to the Paris Agreement would lower the rate of heating in parks by two-thirds by the end of the century.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings, he says, only underscore the National Park Service’s mandate of protecting parks for future generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The data can point parks in the direction of conserving the most vulnerable places or potential \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS713US713&ei=Ed2qW-BnsdL0A8-AiagF&q=refugia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">refugia\u003c/a>, which are stable places that might provide shelter to plant and animal species,” he says. “The future of these national parks is in our hands.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Judge Says Feds Failed to Use Best Science in Axing Grizzly Bear Protections",
"headTitle": "Judge Says Feds Failed to Use Best Science in Axing Grizzly Bear Protections | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>A federal judge has restored Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears living around Yellowstone National Park. [contextly_sidebar id=”3YH49dxGtaF9pkMer4Pe4nhjnpNxiXG3″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his \u003ca href=\"https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/2018-09-24_Doc-266-ORDER.pdf\">ruling\u003c/a>, U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen said the federal government didn’t use the best available science when it removed the bears from the threatened-species list last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday’s ruling puts a stop to proposed grizzly hunts in Wyoming and Idaho, which were on hold while Christensen mulled his decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m feeling relieved,” said Matthew Bishop, an environmental attorney representing WildEarth Guardians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He helped represent tribes and conservation groups in a lawsuit filed after the grizzly bears were delisted in 2017. Bishop argued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service couldn’t delist the animals in one isolated spot without considering the impact on threatened grizzly bears living in other places in the Lower 48 states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you commit to recovering a species in the Lower 48 you should do that,” Bishop said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christensen agreed. In his decision, he said grizzly bears don’t roam everywhere in the West like they used to. Instead they live in isolated pockets, and the federal regulators can’t delist those isolated pockets until the grizzly populations start connecting together.[contextly_sidebar id=”UDwGgDMk7CdDEULMvAlCTBKEI6G2AOW3″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Service cannot abuse its power to delist an already-protected species by ‘balkanization,” Christensen wrote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prior to the ruling, wildlife agencies in Wyoming and Idaho planned to let hunters kill up to 23 grizzlies during its first hunting season for the bears in three decades. It was set to begin on Sept. 1 before Christensen granted a temporary restraining order on August 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many ranchers near the nation’s oldest national park lauded the hunt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are people that encounter grizzly bears as part of their daily lives,” attorney Cody Wisniewski said at an \u003ca href=\"http://www.ypradio.org/post/update-federal-judge-freezes-grizzly-hunts-idaho-wyoming#stream/0\">earlier hearing.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He represented Wyoming ranchers and farmers in the case and said his clients liked having the states in charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their goal is just to have local management. To be able to go to their local representatives, their elected officials, the people that live in and beside them in their state in order to resolve any disputes,” he said.[contextly_sidebar id=”NgS8efYluNaB2RAnw6UBeaFp9z21hzeV”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.mtpr.org/post/judge-returns-yellowstone-grizzlies-endangered-species-list\">According to Montana Public Radio\u003c/a>, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson Jennifer Strickland said the federal government will “work with the state and tribes to ensure that this transition proceeds in accordance with the court’s order.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bishop, who represents WildEarth Guardians, noted the federal government could appeal the decision, which could also impact the \u003ca href=\"https://missoulian.com/news/local/grizzly-committee-to-vote-this-week-on-delisting-strategy-for/article_59779bcf-136f-58f7-af41-b4071fca9a6b.html\">proposed\u003c/a> delisting of grizzly bears living in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem near Montana’s Glacier National Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Judge+Restores+Grizzly+Bears%27+Protections+As+Endangered+Species&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A federal judge has restored Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears living around Yellowstone National Park. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his \u003ca href=\"https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/2018-09-24_Doc-266-ORDER.pdf\">ruling\u003c/a>, U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen said the federal government didn’t use the best available science when it removed the bears from the threatened-species list last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday’s ruling puts a stop to proposed grizzly hunts in Wyoming and Idaho, which were on hold while Christensen mulled his decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m feeling relieved,” said Matthew Bishop, an environmental attorney representing WildEarth Guardians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He helped represent tribes and conservation groups in a lawsuit filed after the grizzly bears were delisted in 2017. Bishop argued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service couldn’t delist the animals in one isolated spot without considering the impact on threatened grizzly bears living in other places in the Lower 48 states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you commit to recovering a species in the Lower 48 you should do that,” Bishop said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christensen agreed. In his decision, he said grizzly bears don’t roam everywhere in the West like they used to. Instead they live in isolated pockets, and the federal regulators can’t delist those isolated pockets until the grizzly populations start connecting together.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Service cannot abuse its power to delist an already-protected species by ‘balkanization,” Christensen wrote.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prior to the ruling, wildlife agencies in Wyoming and Idaho planned to let hunters kill up to 23 grizzlies during its first hunting season for the bears in three decades. It was set to begin on Sept. 1 before Christensen granted a temporary restraining order on August 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many ranchers near the nation’s oldest national park lauded the hunt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are people that encounter grizzly bears as part of their daily lives,” attorney Cody Wisniewski said at an \u003ca href=\"http://www.ypradio.org/post/update-federal-judge-freezes-grizzly-hunts-idaho-wyoming#stream/0\">earlier hearing.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He represented Wyoming ranchers and farmers in the case and said his clients liked having the states in charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their goal is just to have local management. To be able to go to their local representatives, their elected officials, the people that live in and beside them in their state in order to resolve any disputes,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.mtpr.org/post/judge-returns-yellowstone-grizzlies-endangered-species-list\">According to Montana Public Radio\u003c/a>, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson Jennifer Strickland said the federal government will “work with the state and tribes to ensure that this transition proceeds in accordance with the court’s order.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bishop, who represents WildEarth Guardians, noted the federal government could appeal the decision, which could also impact the \u003ca href=\"https://missoulian.com/news/local/grizzly-committee-to-vote-this-week-on-delisting-strategy-for/article_59779bcf-136f-58f7-af41-b4071fca9a6b.html\">proposed\u003c/a> delisting of grizzly bears living in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem near Montana’s Glacier National Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Judge+Restores+Grizzly+Bears%27+Protections+As+Endangered+Species&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]As California enters the winter rainy season, at least one transplant won’t be disappointed to see a change in the weather. West Coast rain is just fine for the house centipede, a guest from the Mediterranean that favors the dark, humid corners of people’s homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not to be confused with their herbivorous cousins the millipedes, centipedes are aggressive predators that use venom to subdue their prey. Even though they are often targeted for pest control, centipedes are some of nature’s best exterminators, emerging by night from their crevices to feed on cockroaches, flies, bedbugs, crickets, spiders and snails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931377\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1931377 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">House centipedes live in the dark, moist corners of people’s homes. \u003ccite>(Kevin Collins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Everyone thinks they bite,” said Orin McMonigle, author of the book “Centipedes in Captivity.” “But I’ve held them in my hand a million times and they’ve never bitten me. They can’t get through your skin.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recognizable for their striking (some might say, repulsive) starburst-like shape, house centipedes have far fewer than the 100 legs their name suggests. They’re born with a modest eight, a count that grows to 30 as they reach adulthood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The house centipede’s legs get progressively longer toward the rear, which creates its characteristic outline and keeps them from getting tangled when they are running fast. And they can run fast — about 16 inches a second, which is pound for pound about the same as a human running 42 mph.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931378\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1931378\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517_cent_on_white_walksthru_720.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The house centipede’s legs coordinate to avoid getting tangled when it runs. \u003ccite>(Kevin Collins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If 30 legs sound like more than one critter really needs — perhaps it is. Over the last 450 million years or so, when centipedes split off from other arthropods, evolution has turned some of those walking limbs into other useful and versatile tools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Basically arthropods are Swiss army knives,” said Greg Edgecombe, a paleontologist who specializes in centipedes at the Natural History Museum, London. “They differentiate the legs for different functions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it hunts, for example, the house centipede uses its legs as a rope to restrain prey in a tactic called “lassoing.” The tip of each leg is so finely segmented and flexible that it can coil around its victim to prevent escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931384\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1931384 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517_cent_catches_cricket_720.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A house centipede catches its prey, like this cricket, with its ropelike legs. \u003ccite>(Kevin Collins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The centipede’s venom-injecting fangs, called forciples, are also modified legs. Though shorter and thicker than the walking limbs, they are multijointed , which makes them far more dexterous than the fangs of insects and spiders, which hinge in only one plane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of this dexterity, the centipede’s forciples not only inject venom, but also hold prey in place while the centipede feeds. Then they take a turn as a grooming tool. The centipede passes its legs through the forciples to clean and lubricate their sensory hairs. “All those hairs need to be kept clean, so they groom pretty regularly,” said Edgecombe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they’re methodical about it. “They groom down one side of the body and then the other,” he added. “When you interrupt them, they pick up where they left off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New research from scientists in Germany has identified another way the house centipede may be repurposing some of its many limbs, this time at the other end of the body. The research focuses on the critter’s hindmost legs, which rival its frontal antennae in length.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931380\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1931380\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A house centipede grooms its leg with its forciples. \u003ccite>(Kevin Collins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists have long noticed that because of their length and the fact that the centipede holds them aloft when it walks, these back legs give the appearance of a second pair of antennae. The house centipede looks like it has two heads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In evolution, when an animal imitates itself, it’s called automimicry. Automimicry occurs in some fish, birds and butterflies, and usually serves to divert predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new research suggests that’s not the whole story with the house centipede. When Andy Sombke and Matthes Kenning from the University of Greifswald turned an electron microscope on the centipede’s legs, they found as many sensory hairs, or sensilla, on them as on the antennae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We asked whether these legs represented some kind of antennae at the back or the end of the body,” said Sombke by email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceTemp\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931382\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1931382\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The house centipede’s back legs rival its front antennae in length. \u003ccite>(Kevin Collins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The presence of so many sensory hairs suggests the centipede’s long back legs are not merely dummies used in a defensive ploy but serve a special function, possibly in mate selection. During courtship, both the male and female house centipede slowly raise and lower their antennae and back legs, followed by mutual tapping and probing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They do this whole ritual dance,” said Randy Mercurio, who runs Centipede Venom Pharm, a North Carolina-based firm that cultivates the venom of centipedes for scientific and medical research. The pairing is difficult to observe, he notes, because house centipedes are highly cannibalistic. His advice to anyone attempting to mate them: “Make sure they’re well fed.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As California enters the winter rainy season, at least one transplant won’t be disappointed to see a change in the weather. West Coast rain is just fine for the house centipede, a guest from the Mediterranean that favors the dark, humid corners of people’s homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not to be confused with their herbivorous cousins the millipedes, centipedes are aggressive predators that use venom to subdue their prey. Even though they are often targeted for pest control, centipedes are some of nature’s best exterminators, emerging by night from their crevices to feed on cockroaches, flies, bedbugs, crickets, spiders and snails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931377\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1931377 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-wider-purple-legs-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">House centipedes live in the dark, moist corners of people’s homes. \u003ccite>(Kevin Collins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Everyone thinks they bite,” said Orin McMonigle, author of the book “Centipedes in Captivity.” “But I’ve held them in my hand a million times and they’ve never bitten me. They can’t get through your skin.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recognizable for their striking (some might say, repulsive) starburst-like shape, house centipedes have far fewer than the 100 legs their name suggests. They’re born with a modest eight, a count that grows to 30 as they reach adulthood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The house centipede’s legs get progressively longer toward the rear, which creates its characteristic outline and keeps them from getting tangled when they are running fast. And they can run fast — about 16 inches a second, which is pound for pound about the same as a human running 42 mph.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931378\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1931378\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517_cent_on_white_walksthru_720.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The house centipede’s legs coordinate to avoid getting tangled when it runs. \u003ccite>(Kevin Collins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If 30 legs sound like more than one critter really needs — perhaps it is. Over the last 450 million years or so, when centipedes split off from other arthropods, evolution has turned some of those walking limbs into other useful and versatile tools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Basically arthropods are Swiss army knives,” said Greg Edgecombe, a paleontologist who specializes in centipedes at the Natural History Museum, London. “They differentiate the legs for different functions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it hunts, for example, the house centipede uses its legs as a rope to restrain prey in a tactic called “lassoing.” The tip of each leg is so finely segmented and flexible that it can coil around its victim to prevent escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931384\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1931384 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517_cent_catches_cricket_720.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A house centipede catches its prey, like this cricket, with its ropelike legs. \u003ccite>(Kevin Collins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The centipede’s venom-injecting fangs, called forciples, are also modified legs. Though shorter and thicker than the walking limbs, they are multijointed , which makes them far more dexterous than the fangs of insects and spiders, which hinge in only one plane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of this dexterity, the centipede’s forciples not only inject venom, but also hold prey in place while the centipede feeds. Then they take a turn as a grooming tool. The centipede passes its legs through the forciples to clean and lubricate their sensory hairs. “All those hairs need to be kept clean, so they groom pretty regularly,” said Edgecombe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they’re methodical about it. “They groom down one side of the body and then the other,” he added. “When you interrupt them, they pick up where they left off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New research from scientists in Germany has identified another way the house centipede may be repurposing some of its many limbs, this time at the other end of the body. The research focuses on the critter’s hindmost legs, which rival its frontal antennae in length.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931380\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1931380\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-underside-leg-groom-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A house centipede grooms its leg with its forciples. \u003ccite>(Kevin Collins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists have long noticed that because of their length and the fact that the centipede holds them aloft when it walks, these back legs give the appearance of a second pair of antennae. The house centipede looks like it has two heads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In evolution, when an animal imitates itself, it’s called automimicry. Automimicry occurs in some fish, birds and butterflies, and usually serves to divert predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new research suggests that’s not the whole story with the house centipede. When Andy Sombke and Matthes Kenning from the University of Greifswald turned an electron microscope on the centipede’s legs, they found as many sensory hairs, or sensilla, on them as on the antennae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We asked whether these legs represented some kind of antennae at the back or the end of the body,” said Sombke by email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceTemp\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931382\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1931382\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL517-centipede-back-legs-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The house centipede’s back legs rival its front antennae in length. \u003ccite>(Kevin Collins)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The presence of so many sensory hairs suggests the centipede’s long back legs are not merely dummies used in a defensive ploy but serve a special function, possibly in mate selection. During courtship, both the male and female house centipede slowly raise and lower their antennae and back legs, followed by mutual tapping and probing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They do this whole ritual dance,” said Randy Mercurio, who runs Centipede Venom Pharm, a North Carolina-based firm that cultivates the venom of centipedes for scientific and medical research. The pairing is difficult to observe, he notes, because house centipedes are highly cannibalistic. His advice to anyone attempting to mate them: “Make sure they’re well fed.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Octopuses Got High On Molly. Here’s What Happened Next",
"headTitle": "Octopuses Got High On Molly. Here’s What Happened Next | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>One day in a lab, scientists gave MDMA to four octopuses. Do not try this at home.[contextly_sidebar id=”7hZ0uH2A1fCX3JloyuehbESNhhtXdF8s”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After putting the eight-legged sea creatures in beakers filled with dissolved ecstasy, scientists learned that the octopuses, known for their anti-social behavior, become more touchy-feely. This reaction suggests an evolutionary link between humans and octopuses through their social behavior, the scientists said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They reported their findings Thursday in \u003ca href=\"https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30991-6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Current Biology\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Octopus intelligence rivals many mammals, and octopuses are the most behaviorally advanced invertebrates. Octopuses can complete mazes and escape from aquariums, but scientists previously believed that these cephalopods lack the social behaviors that often come in species with greater smarts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the new study shows octopuses can exhibit similar social behaviors as humans with a little push from ecstasy, despite drastic differences in their brains. If combined in the future with gene sequencing, the research may reveal the evolution of social behavior across species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans and octopuses diverged evolutionarily 500 million years ago, and a lot has changed since. Besides the obvious additional limbs, or tentacles, lack of spine and affinity for water, octopuses have vastly different central nervous systems compared to humans. For one, octopuses grow most their nerve cells (neurons) in their arms, and as a result, \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mind-of-an-octopus/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">can taste and touch things without their brains being involved\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then in 2015, marine biologist Eric Edsinger \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14668\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">co-discovered a surprising genetic connection\u003c/a> between octopuses and humans. Genetic sequencing revealed that octopuses and humans share a nearly identical serotonin transporter, a protein that moves the chemical messenger serotonin between neurons.[contextly_sidebar id=”qXdxbMfD69G3GbyEpMAhFkiOzPSIvrr5″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Serotonin transporters also mediate the psychological changes associated with taking ecstasy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were interested in the serotonin transporter because we knew that [it was] the principle binding site of MDMA,” said Gul Dolen, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University who co-authored today’s study with Edsinger. “If we focused in on the parts of the protein that are really important for serotonin binding, then the similarity [between humans and octopuses] was over 95 percent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931628\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1931628\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-1020x720.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-1020x720.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-800x565.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-768x542.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-960x678.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-240x169.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-375x265.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-520x367.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two-spotted Octopus, Octopus bimaculoides, portrait at Sea of Cortez, Baja California Mexico. \u003ccite>(Luis Javier Sandoval/VW Pics/UIG via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dolen and Edsinger, who works at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, designed a simple experiment. They gathered nine octopuses of the species Octopus bimaculoides, exposed four of the invertebrates to MDMA and watched if they became more social. They compared the behaviors of these drugged subjects to five sober octopuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the wild, Octopus bimaculoides is only friendly for brief periods of time while mating. Unlike humans, lab mice and other mammals, octopuses lack a nucleus accumbens, any folded cortex whatsoever and reward circuits — parts of the brain associated with behavioral changes from drug use.[contextly_sidebar id=”gfwEw7FHGMXhH7MiIJ2VG7jW8rLqVHas”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Molly seemed to change their behavior during testing. When a tripped-out octopus interacted with its caged counterpart, its caresses appeared to be more exploratory rather than aggressive. This observation mirrors the human behavior of becoming more \u003ca href=\"http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/drugs/ecstasy.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social and touchy-feely\u003c/a> after taking ecstasy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cephalopods’ unexpected reactions to the drug shocked scientists, who didn’t expect such a shift in behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I found it incredibly fascinating. It fits in very nicely with a growing idea that there are lots of genetic mechanisms for social behaviors that are conserved across the animal kingdom,” said Robert Meisel, a neuroscientist at the University of Minnesota who was not involved with the study. “You will have animals that tend to live in isolation, and by something so simple as altering a chemical in the nervous system, you can change the behavior.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>One day in a lab, scientists gave MDMA to four octopuses. Do not try this at home.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After putting the eight-legged sea creatures in beakers filled with dissolved ecstasy, scientists learned that the octopuses, known for their anti-social behavior, become more touchy-feely. This reaction suggests an evolutionary link between humans and octopuses through their social behavior, the scientists said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They reported their findings Thursday in \u003ca href=\"https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30991-6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Current Biology\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Octopus intelligence rivals many mammals, and octopuses are the most behaviorally advanced invertebrates. Octopuses can complete mazes and escape from aquariums, but scientists previously believed that these cephalopods lack the social behaviors that often come in species with greater smarts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the new study shows octopuses can exhibit similar social behaviors as humans with a little push from ecstasy, despite drastic differences in their brains. If combined in the future with gene sequencing, the research may reveal the evolution of social behavior across species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans and octopuses diverged evolutionarily 500 million years ago, and a lot has changed since. Besides the obvious additional limbs, or tentacles, lack of spine and affinity for water, octopuses have vastly different central nervous systems compared to humans. For one, octopuses grow most their nerve cells (neurons) in their arms, and as a result, \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mind-of-an-octopus/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">can taste and touch things without their brains being involved\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then in 2015, marine biologist Eric Edsinger \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14668\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">co-discovered a surprising genetic connection\u003c/a> between octopuses and humans. Genetic sequencing revealed that octopuses and humans share a nearly identical serotonin transporter, a protein that moves the chemical messenger serotonin between neurons.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Serotonin transporters also mediate the psychological changes associated with taking ecstasy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were interested in the serotonin transporter because we knew that [it was] the principle binding site of MDMA,” said Gul Dolen, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University who co-authored today’s study with Edsinger. “If we focused in on the parts of the protein that are really important for serotonin binding, then the similarity [between humans and octopuses] was over 95 percent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1931628\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1931628\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-1020x720.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-1020x720.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-800x565.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-768x542.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-960x678.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-240x169.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-375x265.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723-520x367.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/octopus_GettyImages-687143446-1024x723.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two-spotted Octopus, Octopus bimaculoides, portrait at Sea of Cortez, Baja California Mexico. \u003ccite>(Luis Javier Sandoval/VW Pics/UIG via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dolen and Edsinger, who works at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, designed a simple experiment. They gathered nine octopuses of the species Octopus bimaculoides, exposed four of the invertebrates to MDMA and watched if they became more social. They compared the behaviors of these drugged subjects to five sober octopuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the wild, Octopus bimaculoides is only friendly for brief periods of time while mating. Unlike humans, lab mice and other mammals, octopuses lack a nucleus accumbens, any folded cortex whatsoever and reward circuits — parts of the brain associated with behavioral changes from drug use.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Molly seemed to change their behavior during testing. When a tripped-out octopus interacted with its caged counterpart, its caresses appeared to be more exploratory rather than aggressive. This observation mirrors the human behavior of becoming more \u003ca href=\"http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/drugs/ecstasy.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social and touchy-feely\u003c/a> after taking ecstasy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cephalopods’ unexpected reactions to the drug shocked scientists, who didn’t expect such a shift in behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I found it incredibly fascinating. It fits in very nicely with a growing idea that there are lots of genetic mechanisms for social behaviors that are conserved across the animal kingdom,” said Robert Meisel, a neuroscientist at the University of Minnesota who was not involved with the study. “You will have animals that tend to live in isolation, and by something so simple as altering a chemical in the nervous system, you can change the behavior.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why Are Beneficial Bugs Disappearing?",
"headTitle": "Why Are Beneficial Bugs Disappearing? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>A staple of summer — swarms of bugs — seems to be a thing of the past. And that’s got scientists worried.[contextly_sidebar id=”YLtJOQexW1eUFGytcsxLq3t33TBgqDGv”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pesky mosquitoes, disease-carrying ticks, crop-munching aphids and cockroaches are doing just fine. But the more beneficial flying insects of summer — native bees, moths, butterflies, ladybugs, lovebugs, mayflies and fireflies — appear to be less abundant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists think something is amiss, but they can’t be certain: In the past, they didn’t systematically count the population of flying insects, so they can’t make a proper comparison to today. Nevertheless, they’re pretty sure across the globe there are fewer insects that are crucial to as much as 80 percent of what we eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, some insects are pests. But they also pollinate plants, are a key link in the food chain and help decompose life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have total ecosystem collapse if you lose your insects. How much worse can it get than that?” said University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy. If they disappeared, “the world would start to rot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He noted Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson once \u003ca href=\"http://faculty.washington.edu/timbillo/Readings%20and%20documents/ABRIDGED%20READINGS%20for%20PERU/Wilson_1987_Little_things_that_run.pdf\">called\u003c/a> bugs: “The little things that run the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 89-year-old Wilson recalled that he once frolicked in a “Washington alive with insects, especially butterflies.” Now, “the flying insects are virtually gone.”[contextly_sidebar id=”LSRgkXpBDpPe50NnXtdj5Xd0619N8RGS”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It hit home last year when he drove from suburban Boston to Vermont and decided to count how many bugs hit his windshield. The result: A single moth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Windshield Test \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The un-scientific experiment is called the windshield test. Wilson recommends everyday people do it themselves to see. Baby Boomers will probably notice the difference, Tallamy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several scientists have conducted their own tests with windshields, car grilles and headlights, and most notice few squashed bugs. Researchers are quick to point out that such exercises aren’t good scientific experiments, since they don’t include control groups or make comparisons with past results. (Today’s cars also are more aerodynamic, so bugs are more likely to slip past them and live to buzz about it.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv id=\"div-gpt-ad-1470255291270-1\" class=\"DFPSlot\">\n\u003cp>Still, there are signs of decline. Research has shown dwindling individual species in specific places, including lightning bugs, moths and bumblebees. One \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4020-6047-2_10\">study\u003c/a>estimated a 14 percent decline in ladybugs in the United States and Canada from 1987 to 2006. University of Florida urban entomologist Philip Koehler said he’s seen a recent decrease in lovebugs — insects that fly connected and coated Florida’s windshields in the 1970s and 1980s. This year, he said, “was kind of disappointing, I thought.”[contextly_sidebar id=”CzcPMRuNuWgdNE0HSt5GPGJd8zg4vFrL”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University of Nevada, Reno, researcher Lee Dyer and his colleagues have been looking at insects at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica since 1991. There’s a big insect trap sheet under black light that decades ago would be covered with bugs. Now, “there’s no insects on that sheet,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s not much research looking at all flying insects in big areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Evidence\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.apnews.com/href=%22http:/journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809&_ga=2.266632718.1476661257.1527292800-1633289002.1527292800\">study\u003c/a> that found an 82 percent mid-summer decline in the number and weight of bugs captured in traps in 63 nature preserves in Germany compared with 27 years earlier. It was one of the few, if only, broad studies. Scientists say similar comparisons can’t be done elsewhere, because similar bug counts weren’t done decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know how much we’re losing if we don’t know how much we have,” said University of Hawaii entomologist Helen Spafford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of older data makes it “unclear to what degree we’re experiencing an arthropocalypse,” said University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum. Individual studies aren’t convincing in themselves, “but the sheer accumulated weight of evidence seems to be shifting” to show a problem, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the German study, countries started asking if they have similar problems, said ecologist Toke Thomas Hoye of Aarhus University in Denmark. He studied flies in a few spots in remote Greenland and \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecog.02747\">noticed\u003c/a> an 80 percent drop in numbers since 1996.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s clearly not a German thing,” said University of Connecticut entomologist David Wagner, who has chronicled declines in moth populations in the northeastern United States. “We just need to find out how widespread the phenomenon is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Suspects \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most scientists say lots of factors, not just one, caused the apparent decline in flying insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suspects include habitat loss, insecticide use, the killing of native weeds, single-crop agriculture, invasive species, light pollution, highway traffic and climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s death by a thousand cuts, and that’s really bad news,” Wagner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Tallamy, two causes stand out: Humans’ war on weeds and vast farmland planted with the same few crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weeds and native plants are what bugs eat and where they live, Tallamy said. Milkweeds, crucial to the beautiful monarch butterfly, are dwindling fast. Manicured lawns in the United States are so prevalent that, added together, they are as big as New England, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those landscapes are “essentially dead zones,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Light pollution is another big problem for species such as moths and fireflies, bug experts said. Insects are attracted to brightness, where they become easy prey and expend energy they should be using to get food, Tallamy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jesse Barber of Boise State is in the middle of a study of fireflies and other insects at Grand Teton National Park. He said he notices a distinct connection between light pollution and dwindling populations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re hitting insects during the day, we’re hitting them at night,” Tallamy said. “We’re hitting them just about everywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawns, light pollution and bug-massacring highway traffic are associated where people congregate. But Danish scientist Hoye found a noticeable drop in muscid flies in Greenland 300 miles (500 kilometers) from civilization. His studies linked declines to warmer temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other scientists say human-caused climate change may play a role, albeit small.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Restoring Habitat\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Governments are trying to improve the situation. Maryland is in a three-year experiment to see if planting bee-friendly native wildflowers helps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University of Maryland entomology researcher Lisa Kuder says the usual close-crop “turf is basically like a desert” that doesn’t attract flying insects. She found an improvement — 70 different species and records for bees — in the areas where flowers are allowed to grow wild and natural alongside roads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trouble is that it is so close to roadways that Tallamy fears that the plants become “ecological traps where you’re drawing insects in and they’re all squashed by cars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Tallamy remains hopeful. In 2000, he moved into this rural area between Philadelphia and Baltimore and made his 10-acre patch all native plants, creating a playground for bugs. Now he has 861 species of moths and 54 species of breeding birds that feed on insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wagner, of the University of Connecticut, spends his summers teaching middle schoolers in a camp to look for insects, like he did decades ago. They have a hard time finding the cocoons he used to see regularly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kids I’m teaching right now are going to think that scarce insects are the rule,” Wagner said. “They’re not realizing that there could be an ecological disaster on the horizon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>___\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Associated Press video journalist Federica Narancio contributed to this report. Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/borenbears\">@borenbears\u003c/a> . His work can be found \u003ca href=\"http://tinyurl.com/sethap\">here\u003c/a> .\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Scientists are noticing fewer flying insects that aren't really pests, like moths and butterflies. A variety of reasons are suspected but they all lead back to what humans are doing do the environment.",
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"description": "Scientists are noticing fewer flying insects that aren't really pests, like moths and butterflies. A variety of reasons are suspected but they all lead back to what humans are doing do the environment.",
"title": "Why Are Beneficial Bugs Disappearing? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A staple of summer — swarms of bugs — seems to be a thing of the past. And that’s got scientists worried.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pesky mosquitoes, disease-carrying ticks, crop-munching aphids and cockroaches are doing just fine. But the more beneficial flying insects of summer — native bees, moths, butterflies, ladybugs, lovebugs, mayflies and fireflies — appear to be less abundant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists think something is amiss, but they can’t be certain: In the past, they didn’t systematically count the population of flying insects, so they can’t make a proper comparison to today. Nevertheless, they’re pretty sure across the globe there are fewer insects that are crucial to as much as 80 percent of what we eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, some insects are pests. But they also pollinate plants, are a key link in the food chain and help decompose life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have total ecosystem collapse if you lose your insects. How much worse can it get than that?” said University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy. If they disappeared, “the world would start to rot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He noted Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson once \u003ca href=\"http://faculty.washington.edu/timbillo/Readings%20and%20documents/ABRIDGED%20READINGS%20for%20PERU/Wilson_1987_Little_things_that_run.pdf\">called\u003c/a> bugs: “The little things that run the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 89-year-old Wilson recalled that he once frolicked in a “Washington alive with insects, especially butterflies.” Now, “the flying insects are virtually gone.”\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It hit home last year when he drove from suburban Boston to Vermont and decided to count how many bugs hit his windshield. The result: A single moth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Windshield Test \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The un-scientific experiment is called the windshield test. Wilson recommends everyday people do it themselves to see. Baby Boomers will probably notice the difference, Tallamy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several scientists have conducted their own tests with windshields, car grilles and headlights, and most notice few squashed bugs. Researchers are quick to point out that such exercises aren’t good scientific experiments, since they don’t include control groups or make comparisons with past results. (Today’s cars also are more aerodynamic, so bugs are more likely to slip past them and live to buzz about it.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv id=\"div-gpt-ad-1470255291270-1\" class=\"DFPSlot\">\n\u003cp>Still, there are signs of decline. Research has shown dwindling individual species in specific places, including lightning bugs, moths and bumblebees. One \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4020-6047-2_10\">study\u003c/a>estimated a 14 percent decline in ladybugs in the United States and Canada from 1987 to 2006. University of Florida urban entomologist Philip Koehler said he’s seen a recent decrease in lovebugs — insects that fly connected and coated Florida’s windshields in the 1970s and 1980s. This year, he said, “was kind of disappointing, I thought.”\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University of Nevada, Reno, researcher Lee Dyer and his colleagues have been looking at insects at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica since 1991. There’s a big insect trap sheet under black light that decades ago would be covered with bugs. Now, “there’s no insects on that sheet,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s not much research looking at all flying insects in big areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Evidence\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.apnews.com/href=%22http:/journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809&_ga=2.266632718.1476661257.1527292800-1633289002.1527292800\">study\u003c/a> that found an 82 percent mid-summer decline in the number and weight of bugs captured in traps in 63 nature preserves in Germany compared with 27 years earlier. It was one of the few, if only, broad studies. Scientists say similar comparisons can’t be done elsewhere, because similar bug counts weren’t done decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know how much we’re losing if we don’t know how much we have,” said University of Hawaii entomologist Helen Spafford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of older data makes it “unclear to what degree we’re experiencing an arthropocalypse,” said University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum. Individual studies aren’t convincing in themselves, “but the sheer accumulated weight of evidence seems to be shifting” to show a problem, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the German study, countries started asking if they have similar problems, said ecologist Toke Thomas Hoye of Aarhus University in Denmark. He studied flies in a few spots in remote Greenland and \u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecog.02747\">noticed\u003c/a> an 80 percent drop in numbers since 1996.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s clearly not a German thing,” said University of Connecticut entomologist David Wagner, who has chronicled declines in moth populations in the northeastern United States. “We just need to find out how widespread the phenomenon is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Suspects \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most scientists say lots of factors, not just one, caused the apparent decline in flying insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suspects include habitat loss, insecticide use, the killing of native weeds, single-crop agriculture, invasive species, light pollution, highway traffic and climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s death by a thousand cuts, and that’s really bad news,” Wagner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Tallamy, two causes stand out: Humans’ war on weeds and vast farmland planted with the same few crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weeds and native plants are what bugs eat and where they live, Tallamy said. Milkweeds, crucial to the beautiful monarch butterfly, are dwindling fast. Manicured lawns in the United States are so prevalent that, added together, they are as big as New England, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those landscapes are “essentially dead zones,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Light pollution is another big problem for species such as moths and fireflies, bug experts said. Insects are attracted to brightness, where they become easy prey and expend energy they should be using to get food, Tallamy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jesse Barber of Boise State is in the middle of a study of fireflies and other insects at Grand Teton National Park. He said he notices a distinct connection between light pollution and dwindling populations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re hitting insects during the day, we’re hitting them at night,” Tallamy said. “We’re hitting them just about everywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawns, light pollution and bug-massacring highway traffic are associated where people congregate. But Danish scientist Hoye found a noticeable drop in muscid flies in Greenland 300 miles (500 kilometers) from civilization. His studies linked declines to warmer temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other scientists say human-caused climate change may play a role, albeit small.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Restoring Habitat\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Governments are trying to improve the situation. Maryland is in a three-year experiment to see if planting bee-friendly native wildflowers helps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University of Maryland entomology researcher Lisa Kuder says the usual close-crop “turf is basically like a desert” that doesn’t attract flying insects. She found an improvement — 70 different species and records for bees — in the areas where flowers are allowed to grow wild and natural alongside roads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trouble is that it is so close to roadways that Tallamy fears that the plants become “ecological traps where you’re drawing insects in and they’re all squashed by cars.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Tallamy remains hopeful. In 2000, he moved into this rural area between Philadelphia and Baltimore and made his 10-acre patch all native plants, creating a playground for bugs. Now he has 861 species of moths and 54 species of breeding birds that feed on insects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wagner, of the University of Connecticut, spends his summers teaching middle schoolers in a camp to look for insects, like he did decades ago. They have a hard time finding the cocoons he used to see regularly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kids I’m teaching right now are going to think that scarce insects are the rule,” Wagner said. “They’re not realizing that there could be an ecological disaster on the horizon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>___\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Associated Press video journalist Federica Narancio contributed to this report. Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/borenbears\">@borenbears\u003c/a> . His work can be found \u003ca href=\"http://tinyurl.com/sethap\">here\u003c/a> .\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]Every year, hundreds of thousands of kittens end up in animal shelters, in need of permanent homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_FIVE-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_CLIMBS_PEN.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1930970 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_FIVE-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_CLIMBS_PEN.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 5-week-old kitten plays at a shelter run by the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA in Burlingame, near San Francisco, California. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But raising orphaned newborns into healthy, fluffy, frisky 2-month-olds ready to be adopted requires an enormous behind-the-scenes effort. All across the country, volunteer foster parents log many sleepless nights bottle-feeding kittens, which are even more helpless than human babies. So researchers and shelters are trying to figure out ways to make it easier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people think fostering is taking kittens home and playing with them,” said Penny Dougherty, chief executive director of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kittencentralofplacercounty.org/our-program\">Kitten Central of Placer County\u003c/a>, an animal shelter she runs from her house in Newcastle, California, 30 miles northeast of Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930966\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_BOTTLE_FEEDS_NIGHTTIME.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1930966 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_BOTTLE_FEEDS_NIGHTTIME.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Penny Dougherty bottle-feeds a 2-week-old kitten she fostered at her house in June. During their first weeks, kittens in foster care need to be bottle-fed every two to four hours, day and night. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kitten Central receives most of its kittens from Placer County Animal Services. Dougherty cares for kittens up to 1 month old, as well as feral and stray cats with litters. After the kittens weigh at least 2 pounds and have been spayed and neutered, she returns them to the agency so they can put them up for adoption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re very happy to have our services,” said Dougherty, “because so many shelters have to euthanize.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dougherty said that before she opened Kitten Central in 2012, Placer County Animal Services regularly euthanized newborn kittens, a common practice around the country. The nonprofit covers its expenses through donations and a $62.50 charge to animal services for each kitten it fosters, a fee that covers food, vaccines, heating pads and antibiotics, said Dougherty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the days start getting longer, around January, cats start breeding. March is the beginning of what’s known among shelters as “kitten season.” The flow of kittens doesn’t slow down until November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930964\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_CAT_AND_HER_SEVEN_NEWBORN_KITTENS.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1930964\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_CAT_AND_HER_SEVEN_NEWBORN_KITTENS.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This stray cat gave birth to seven kittens in June in Valerie Hatfield’s bathroom. Hatfield fosters pregnant cats and orphaned kittens through the San Francisco-based nonprofit Toni’s Kitty Rescue. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Kitten season is kind of one of the banes of shelter existence,” said Cynthia Delany, supervising shelter veterinarian at Yolo County Animal Services in Woodland, west of Sacramento. “Six or seven months out of the year we’re just flooded with these little guys.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the most part, it’s a human-made problem, she said. People who come across a new litter may think that the mother has abandoned her babies, and they take them to a shelter. But more often than not, the cat is just off looking for food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To steer clear of inundating shelters with newborn kittens, Delany’s advice is to leave litters alone unless they’re in immediate danger. Most of the time their mom will return, she said, so check back periodically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really hard for people to see kittens and not want to just scoop them up,” she said. “But just by separating them from their mom, you’ve decreased their chance of survival because they need their mom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930969\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1930969\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kittens are born with their eyes sealed shut. They don’t open up until they’re about 10 days old. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Newborn kittens are particularly vulnerable because they’re born underdeveloped. They’re what’s known as altricial. They need a lot of care from their mothers, in comparison with baby animals such as foals, which stand up within an hour of birth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the first week and a half of their lives, kittens’ eyes are sealed closed and their ears are folded up, making them practically blind and deaf. They don’t stand up until they’re a month old. To survive, they need their mother to keep warm and nurse. They find her milk by sniffing and pawing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930968\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1930968 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 2-day-old kitten’s ear is folded up. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When a mama cat is absent, newborn kittens require around-the-clock human care and a heating pad to lie on. During their first two weeks, they need to be bottle-fed every two to three hours throughout the night; and after that, every three to four hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t have trouble when the alarm goes off at 3 a.m.,” said Dougherty of Kitten Central. “But staying up to 11 p.m. is rough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newborn kittens can’t even pee on their own. They need their foster parents to lightly rub their backsides in order to be stimulated. This mimics the licking their cat mother would do. So after bottle-feeding a 2-week-old kitten, Dougherty rubs its bottom with a wipe to encourage it to pee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The job becomes even harder when newborn kittens get sick with respiratory diseases or diarrhea, which they often do because their immune systems aren’t developed yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All this work makes it challenging to find volunteers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of my fosters burn out after three seasons,” said Dougherty. She manages 35 foster parents, who cared for 515 kittens in their houses last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an effort to lessen the load on foster parents and increase newborn kittens’ chances of survival, \u003ca href=\"http://catsandsquirrels.com/aboutme/\">Mikel Maria Delgado\u003c/a>, a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, is joining forces with Kitten Central and other animal shelters to figure out if there are optimum temperature and humidity levels that make it possible to feed newborn kittens less frequently. She has distributed incubators to the groups so that two or three kittens can be kept in each one for about three weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930967\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1930967 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 2-week-old kitten spends its time in an incubator at Penny Dougherty’s house in Newcastle, California. The incubator was provided by Mikel Maria Delgado, a postdoctoral fellow at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, who is researching the best temperature for newborn kittens in foster care. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During their first two to three weeks of life, kittens can’t keep themselves warm on their own and need a constant source of heat, whether their mom, siblings or a heating pad of some sort. Some of the incubators in the study are kept at 90 degrees and others at 80 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We predict that there will be some benefits to keeping them warmer and moister,” said Delgado. “What we’re hoping to find is that if a kitten is kept in a warm environment, then they’ll need fewer feedings and it would be easier to find foster parents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incubators, which cost $1,000 apiece, look a little like toaster ovens. The kittens sleep on a warming pad inside. In an incubator on Dougherty’s kitchen counter, 2-week-old tabby brothers she calls Winston and Winfield are learning how to play, scooting around on their bellies and tentatively lunging at each other. They were abandoned at birth by a feral cat at a house nearby. As part of the research project, Dougherty weighs them after each feeding and keeps a log of how much they ate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930987\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1930987 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Penny Dougherty weighs a bottle with formula before feeding a 2-week-old kitten at her house, where she runs Kitten Central of Placer County. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Delgado’s study started in May. She has collected data on 70 newborn kittens fostered by Kitten Central and other groups like the Orphan Kitten Project run by UC Davis veterinary students. She’ll be gathering data next year, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it turns out that keeping kittens at a particular temperature and humidity helps, Delgado then plans to design a cheap alternative to an incubator that animal shelters could use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Incubators cost $500 to $1,000. We’d want to develop something affordable for rescue groups. Maybe a sponge can increase the humidity,” said Delgado. “Now people use cat carriers and cardboard boxes. Those probably aren’t warm enough and humid enough for kittens to thrive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Additional reporting contributed by Emma Hiolski. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Newborn kittens are a huge challenge for shelters, so they’re working on ways to help them flourish.\r\n",
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"title": "How Kittens Go From Clueless to Cute | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Every year, hundreds of thousands of kittens end up in animal shelters, in need of permanent homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_FIVE-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_CLIMBS_PEN.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1930970 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_FIVE-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_CLIMBS_PEN.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 5-week-old kitten plays at a shelter run by the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA in Burlingame, near San Francisco, California. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But raising orphaned newborns into healthy, fluffy, frisky 2-month-olds ready to be adopted requires an enormous behind-the-scenes effort. All across the country, volunteer foster parents log many sleepless nights bottle-feeding kittens, which are even more helpless than human babies. So researchers and shelters are trying to figure out ways to make it easier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people think fostering is taking kittens home and playing with them,” said Penny Dougherty, chief executive director of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kittencentralofplacercounty.org/our-program\">Kitten Central of Placer County\u003c/a>, an animal shelter she runs from her house in Newcastle, California, 30 miles northeast of Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930966\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_BOTTLE_FEEDS_NIGHTTIME.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1930966 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_BOTTLE_FEEDS_NIGHTTIME.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Penny Dougherty bottle-feeds a 2-week-old kitten she fostered at her house in June. During their first weeks, kittens in foster care need to be bottle-fed every two to four hours, day and night. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kitten Central receives most of its kittens from Placer County Animal Services. Dougherty cares for kittens up to 1 month old, as well as feral and stray cats with litters. After the kittens weigh at least 2 pounds and have been spayed and neutered, she returns them to the agency so they can put them up for adoption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re very happy to have our services,” said Dougherty, “because so many shelters have to euthanize.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dougherty said that before she opened Kitten Central in 2012, Placer County Animal Services regularly euthanized newborn kittens, a common practice around the country. The nonprofit covers its expenses through donations and a $62.50 charge to animal services for each kitten it fosters, a fee that covers food, vaccines, heating pads and antibiotics, said Dougherty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the days start getting longer, around January, cats start breeding. March is the beginning of what’s known among shelters as “kitten season.” The flow of kittens doesn’t slow down until November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930964\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_CAT_AND_HER_SEVEN_NEWBORN_KITTENS.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1930964\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_CAT_AND_HER_SEVEN_NEWBORN_KITTENS.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This stray cat gave birth to seven kittens in June in Valerie Hatfield’s bathroom. Hatfield fosters pregnant cats and orphaned kittens through the San Francisco-based nonprofit Toni’s Kitty Rescue. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Kitten season is kind of one of the banes of shelter existence,” said Cynthia Delany, supervising shelter veterinarian at Yolo County Animal Services in Woodland, west of Sacramento. “Six or seven months out of the year we’re just flooded with these little guys.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the most part, it’s a human-made problem, she said. People who come across a new litter may think that the mother has abandoned her babies, and they take them to a shelter. But more often than not, the cat is just off looking for food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To steer clear of inundating shelters with newborn kittens, Delany’s advice is to leave litters alone unless they’re in immediate danger. Most of the time their mom will return, she said, so check back periodically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really hard for people to see kittens and not want to just scoop them up,” she said. “But just by separating them from their mom, you’ve decreased their chance of survival because they need their mom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930969\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1930969\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_NEWBORN_KITTEN_W_EYES_SEALED_CLOSED_1920-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kittens are born with their eyes sealed shut. They don’t open up until they’re about 10 days old. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Newborn kittens are particularly vulnerable because they’re born underdeveloped. They’re what’s known as altricial. They need a lot of care from their mothers, in comparison with baby animals such as foals, which stand up within an hour of birth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the first week and a half of their lives, kittens’ eyes are sealed closed and their ears are folded up, making them practically blind and deaf. They don’t stand up until they’re a month old. To survive, they need their mother to keep warm and nurse. They find her milk by sniffing and pawing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930968\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1930968 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_EAR_FOLDED_CLOSED_1920-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 2-day-old kitten’s ear is folded up. \u003ccite>(Gabriela Quirós/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When a mama cat is absent, newborn kittens require around-the-clock human care and a heating pad to lie on. During their first two weeks, they need to be bottle-fed every two to three hours throughout the night; and after that, every three to four hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t have trouble when the alarm goes off at 3 a.m.,” said Dougherty of Kitten Central. “But staying up to 11 p.m. is rough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newborn kittens can’t even pee on their own. They need their foster parents to lightly rub their backsides in order to be stimulated. This mimics the licking their cat mother would do. So after bottle-feeding a 2-week-old kitten, Dougherty rubs its bottom with a wipe to encourage it to pee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The job becomes even harder when newborn kittens get sick with respiratory diseases or diarrhea, which they often do because their immune systems aren’t developed yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All this work makes it challenging to find volunteers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some of my fosters burn out after three seasons,” said Dougherty. She manages 35 foster parents, who cared for 515 kittens in their houses last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an effort to lessen the load on foster parents and increase newborn kittens’ chances of survival, \u003ca href=\"http://catsandsquirrels.com/aboutme/\">Mikel Maria Delgado\u003c/a>, a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, is joining forces with Kitten Central and other animal shelters to figure out if there are optimum temperature and humidity levels that make it possible to feed newborn kittens less frequently. She has distributed incubators to the groups so that two or three kittens can be kept in each one for about three weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930967\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1930967 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516Kittens_TWO-WEEK-OLD_KITTEN_IN_INCUBATOR_1920-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 2-week-old kitten spends its time in an incubator at Penny Dougherty’s house in Newcastle, California. The incubator was provided by Mikel Maria Delgado, a postdoctoral fellow at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, who is researching the best temperature for newborn kittens in foster care. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During their first two to three weeks of life, kittens can’t keep themselves warm on their own and need a constant source of heat, whether their mom, siblings or a heating pad of some sort. Some of the incubators in the study are kept at 90 degrees and others at 80 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We predict that there will be some benefits to keeping them warmer and moister,” said Delgado. “What we’re hoping to find is that if a kitten is kept in a warm environment, then they’ll need fewer feedings and it would be easier to find foster parents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incubators, which cost $1,000 apiece, look a little like toaster ovens. The kittens sleep on a warming pad inside. In an incubator on Dougherty’s kitchen counter, 2-week-old tabby brothers she calls Winston and Winfield are learning how to play, scooting around on their bellies and tentatively lunging at each other. They were abandoned at birth by a feral cat at a house nearby. As part of the research project, Dougherty weighs them after each feeding and keeps a log of how much they ate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930987\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1930987 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/DL_516KITTENS_PENNY_DOUGHERTY_WEIGHS_BOTTLE_1920-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Penny Dougherty weighs a bottle with formula before feeding a 2-week-old kitten at her house, where she runs Kitten Central of Placer County. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Delgado’s study started in May. She has collected data on 70 newborn kittens fostered by Kitten Central and other groups like the Orphan Kitten Project run by UC Davis veterinary students. She’ll be gathering data next year, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it turns out that keeping kittens at a particular temperature and humidity helps, Delgado then plans to design a cheap alternative to an incubator that animal shelters could use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Incubators cost $500 to $1,000. We’d want to develop something affordable for rescue groups. Maybe a sponge can increase the humidity,” said Delgado. “Now people use cat carriers and cardboard boxes. Those probably aren’t warm enough and humid enough for kittens to thrive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Additional reporting contributed by Emma Hiolski. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
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"meta": {
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"source": "WNYC"
},
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
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"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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