May 2022 - Favorite World Press

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

1.5-minute read

So, what are we celebrating? Every living thing on our amazing planet.

From the tiny to the tremendous, biodiversity—that’s short for biological diversity—includes bacteria, plants, animals, and we humans, of course. It’s giraffes and gorillas, whales and wombats, bees and butterflies, flowers and fungi, and you and me—oh, and the FWP Maine Coon cat Stella.

Every living organism represents a thread in the fabric of life on Earth. The greater the variety of threads in the fabric, the stronger, the more resilient and more beautiful the weave. Scientists estimate that there are approximately 8.7 million different species of plants and animals on the planet, and they’re still counting.

Maintaining biological diversity is incredibly important to sustaining all living things and supporting our physical, mental, spiritual health and well-being. How important is it? Let’s count the ways we depend on biodiversity:

Oxygen. Yeah. That’s a big one.
Clean water. Also a must-have item.
Carbon storage. Bad things start to happen when our home gets too hot.
Photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, pollination. That’s how our gardens grow.
Food, medicine, building materials for shelter. Can’t live life without all of those.
Resilience against flooding, major storms, and zoonotic disease. Now more than ever.
Reduced heart disease, asthma, and diabetes. Healthier is happier.
Reduced stress, anxiety, depression, and aggression. Very essential service.

Love You World. Love You Right Back, People.
When we take care of the living world, it takes care of us—and that’s a big thing to celebrate today and every day. You can learn more about how to help maintain the fabric of life on Earth from the Center for Biological Diversity.

ICYMI Nature Items:

Yummy, Yummy Plastic
Scientists are working on re-engineering a plastic-eating bacterium to break down plastic twice as fast. Given the estimated 6.3 billion tons of plastic polluting the world, we hope that bacterium is hungry.

Songbirds of Western Africa
Shika Shika is back with Volume III of the Endangered Birdsong Project. 100% of proceeds from the album will be donated to conservation projects across Western Africa. Have a listen to some sample tweets and trills here.

Big Birds of Manhattan
If you’re local to NYC, the Audubon Murals 5K Run & Walk is on June 5. Whether you’re a stroller or a sprinter, you can register here to take a tour of the big birds of Manhattan and help support the Audubon Society’s critical work protecting our feathered friends from the impacts of climate change.

Run Around the World
Wherever you find yourself in the first week of June, you can help raise funds to protect biodiversity by participating in the World Wildlife Fund’s live virtual 5K for Nature on June 4th. Or you can choose the WWF 5K anywhere, anytime option and run around your backyard at 3 a.m. in your jammies, if that’s how you roll. Choose your pathway for nature-preservation here.

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Lisa S. French May 22, 2022

Clever Dolphins Choose Friends Wisely

1.5-minute read

Reciprocity is a deep instinct; it is the basic currency of social life.

Jonathan Haidt

Widely recognized as one of the most intelligent animals on the planet, bottlenose dolphins use their big brains to form complex social alliances that help increase their odds of survival. Much the same way that we humans look for positive characteristics in close friends like trustworthiness, loyalty, and dependability, dolphins also have make-or-break criteria for choosing BFFs (best finned friends). And what’s the number one trait they look for in an ally? Reciprocity.

According to a new study from the University of Bristol, male dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia use many of the same cognitive skills as humans to observe behavior, determine the strength of their relationships, and decide who to count on when the chips are down. They choose their long-term teammates based on experiences of mutual support and cooperation.

Caller ID for Dolphins
Because no two dolphins sound alike, the clever creatures keep track of who’s who based on signature whistles. The Bristol researchers analyzed 30 years of behavior and 40 different whistle playback experiments and determined that bottlenose dolphins recognize a true friend when they hear one. Whether an individual dolphin responds to a whistle depends on memories of past reciprocity from the whistler. To have a good dolphin friend, be a good dolphin friend—or it’s straight to voice mail.

ICYMI Nature News:

Chatty, Chatty Mushrooms
As reported in the Guardian, a scientist has theorized that fungi have something to say and 50 different “words” to say it. Who wouldn’t like chatty mushrooms?

The Bird Is Back
A bit of happy news on the bird front—the legendary ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct after all. Although you were never truly gone, welcome back, feathery friend.

More Earth Music
To rally the music industry on behalf of organizations addressing the climate emergency, artist Brian Eno has launched the fund-raising org EarthPercent. You can learn about their critical mission here, and you can listen to some new EarthPercent music here—courtesy of the good people at Bandcamp.

Saving Bees with Sunflowers
Are you looking for a great way to pitch in on behalf of bees this summer? If you live in North America, you can join the Great Sunflower Project to help track and conserve our precious pollinators. You can learn all about it here, and you can find scads of bee-licious sunflower plants to get you started here.

Tree Read
If you’re a planet-appreciating friend of forests, we’ve got an essential read for you. Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet, by John W. Reid and Thomas E. Lovejoy, is a beautifully written, hopeful, and compelling call-to-action to save the Earth’s five giant forests—and a fascinating travelogue even for non-tree-geeks.

FWP Monthly Carbon Capture Report
FYI, the trees that we planted with Tree-Nation in April will capture and store over 106 tons of CO2. That’s equivalent to the emissions from over 128,000 pounds of coal burned or 14 million smartphones charged. We’re rolling on with the lovely, leafy sky vacuums.

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Lisa S. French May 6, 2022