| Hi Everybody,
This is my third news Digest. Thank you for reading, and happy holidays! |
|
| |
|
| Tips to protect snowy owls in Massachusetts. Mass Audubon shares guidance on how residents can respectfully observe snowy owls during their winter stay. The article highlights risks from vehicles and rodenticides and recommends keeping at least 150 feet away and retreating if an owl shows signs of stress. Ethical wildlife viewing plays a key role in protecting these vulnerable birds. The article also connects to broader concerns about rodenticide impacts, echoed by EwA’s Rat Poison Brigade. |
|
| | 📸 Snowy Owl | © Marilyn Blake |
|
| |
|
| | | 📸 A honey bee covered in pollen | Credit: Shutterstock, Science Daily |
|
High temperatures and pollutants may dull the buzzing of bees. In this article, a scientist at Uppsala University examines how bees use flight muscle vibrations to communicate, defend themselves, and pollinate flowers through buzz pollination. The research shows that heavy metal exposure and high temperatures reduce buzzing frequency in buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris). These findings suggest climate change and pollution may threaten bee populations in additional, previously overlooked ways. |
|
| |
|
| Politicians in Brazil are pushing to reverse a policy that protects the Amazon rainforest. Both farming interests and politicians in Brazil are pushing to reverse the Amazon Soy Moratorium, a policy which prohibits the sale of soy grown on land cleared after 2008. If the ban is reversed, deforestation in the Amazon could increase. This article quotes Bel Lyon, an expert from the World Wildlife Fund, as stating that reversing the policy “could open up an area the size of Portugal to deforestation”. |
|
| | 📸 Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest | Credit: Tony Jolliffe, BBC |
|
| |
|
| | | 📸 The Red Knot, a bird which feeds on horseshoe crabs | Credit: Christopher Unsworth, Shutterstock |
|
Congress supports policy protecting horseshoe crabs and shorebirds. In a non-binding resolution, Congress is encouraging the FDA to take action protecting horseshoe crabs. Humans harvest horseshoe crab blood for use in medical testing. The policy instructs the FDA to update its guidelines for medical safety testing to include synthetic methods instead of only using the crab blood.This is good news for horseshoe crab populations, and for the shorebirds that feed off of their eggs. |
|
| |
|
| Search for Shackleton’s Endurance uncovers fish nesting under an ice sheet. A 2019 expedition intending to search for a century old shipwreck also discovered a previously undiscovered breeding colony of the antarctic rockcod species called the yellowfin notie (Lindbergichthys nudifrons). Using underwater robots to take photographs, scientists found both the Endurance and large groups of circular nests on the ocean floor. This discovery supports the push to make the Weddell Sea a Marine Protected Area. |
|
| | 📸 Photos of yellowfin notie nests taken during the expedition| Credit: Weddell Sea Expedition, 2019 |
|
| |
|
| Scientists have discovered a cave inhabited by approximately 110 000 spiders! In 2022, a team of speleologists (cave scientists) found something remarkable: an enormous spider colony, spanning over 1000 square feet in a cave between Albania and Greece. The spiders live in a structure made up of thousands of funnel webs, covering the walls and ceiling of the cave. The colony is composed of around 69,000 Tegenaria domestica spiders and around 42,000 Prinerigone vagans spiders. This is one of the first recorded instances of these two species coexisting peacefully, since they typically predate one another on the surface. |
|
| | 📸 A scientist standing next to part of the giant web | Credit: Marek Audy |
|
| |
|
| | - Sophie PinsteinEarthwise Aware | Spring Intern |
|
| |
|
|
|
