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

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
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Lisa S. French

2.0-minute read

We don’t typically associate spontaneous acts of altruism with members of the animal kingdom. Taking action that relieves suffering or improves the life of another without receiving any benefit has long been thought to be a uniquely human trait. As it turns out, chimpanzees also get by with a little assistance from their selfless friends. Rather than operating on the basis of “you scratch my back, I’ll share my banana,” chimps are willing and able to go out of their way to lend a helping hand without receiving any immediate or long-term primate perks in return.

Although many social behaviors of chimps like grooming, food sharing, and consoling are driven by expectations of reciprocity from relatives or members of their troop, researchers at the Max Planck Institute discovered that chimpanzees also make an effort to help out, without training or reward, even if the ape in need is a stranger. In the German study, 12 out of 18 chimpanzees born in the wild watching an unknown chimp struggle to open a chained door leading to food would move from their resting place to unhook the chain and give the hungry chimp access without begging or bullying for a share of the treat.

So, what motivates helping without the possibility of payback? And is there a relationship between the altruistic behaviors in charitable chimps and helpful humans? Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studying how humans process the consequences of our actions believe that we may receive an internal reward for being kind or avoiding the guilt or shame of not helping. However, people who are motivated by positive altruism, which is solely for the benefit of others, tend to have greater innate empathy that provokes an emotional response when faced with the suffering or need of another person. They offer assistance even if it requires self-sacrifice. Those lower in empathy were more likely to help only when there was no other option. Apparently, the happy-to-help crew are also happier for helping, benefiting from enhanced mood and life meaning and a greater sense of self-efficacy and competence with the added bonus of improving society and humanity as a whole. Altruism – good, and good for you!

While humans have the capacity to empathize and cultivate cultural norms that promote altruism, we can’t be certain why chimpanzees make an effort to do the right thing with no benefit to themselves. Perhaps they aim to avoid shunning from chimp society, or maybe they are also able to identify with the emotional state of another living being in distress and then feel compelled to act. For now, the answer seems to be that they help simply because they can.

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Lisa S. French January 16, 2021

Aspiring Snow Leopard

Because she’s been grumbling about her lack of internet exposure this year, we offer a rare glimpse of Stella, the FWP in-house, aspiring snow leopard, traversing the rooftop tundra in search of elusive subarctic mice. So fierce!

And in the spirit of the season, a little snow day glow.

Stay safe and warm out there—brrrr!

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Lisa S. French December 17, 2020

Charmingly Chubby Champion

1.5-minute read

We’ve got some exciting news about an important election! Forest & Bird, one of New Zealand’s leading independent conservation organizations, have announced the results of the 2020 Bird of the Year contest. The winner is—drumroll please—one of our favorite birds Down Under, and the world’s only flightless parrot, the charismatic, critically endangered kākāpō. Take a bow your royal feathered green-ness—no bird waddles quite like you!

Once widespread across New Zealand, the parrot’s populations have been decimated by habitat loss and the introduction of invasive predators. Although the number of kākāpōs has been increasing from a low of just 18 birds in 1977, according to the IUCN, there are currently only 209 on the planet.

The slow-moving, ground-dwelling kākāpō can live up to 95 years, given a fighting chance. Scientists continue to work intensely to save the rare species from extinction through captive breeding and identification and protection of safe habitat. The ultimate goal of conservationists is to establish a self-sustaining population of the beloved birds as part of a healthy island ecosystem.

You can learn more about the kākāpō and all of the beautiful Bird of the Year contestants here.

On a related creature-conservation note, if you’d like to help bee the change, through November 30th, non-profits, schools, and community organizations in the U.S. can apply to the Bee Conservancy through their Sponsor-A-Hive program for a custom bee house to host mason, leafcutter, and carpenter bees. While spring may seem a long way off, flowering plants in need of pollination will be popping up before you know it!

And since it is Monday, we leave you with a sweet, soothing dose of musical sunshine to help ease you into your week.

Wherever you are in the world, stay safe and be well.

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Lisa S. French November 16, 2020

Keeping High-Tech Tabs on Endangered Sea Turtles

2-minute read

These are tough times for sea turtles. For over 100 million years, the armored reptiles (Chelonians) have peacefully paddled the Earth’s oceans, but due to overharvesting, loss of nesting habitat, and chronic egg collecting and trafficking, six out of seven species are currently listed as threatened or endangered.

In addition to being valued for their obvious sea creature charisma, turtles play a vital role in the health of undersea ecosystems, helping to bolster coastal economies around the world. Because demand for turtle products is at an all-time high, the marine megafauna is at extreme risk of becoming extinct in the wild, and conservationists are racing to develop advanced tracking systems to help keep closer tabs on eggs, turtles—and traffickers.

Satellite monitoring of sea turtles in aid of conservation began 25 years ago. With advancements in the miniaturization of tracking tags and improvements in bandwidth, transmission, and data analysis, GPS technology has come of age, and scientists can monitor all seven species in oceans globally. A small tracking device, easily attached to a turtle’s shell, can capture information about the animal and its environment, including how it navigates the oceans, where it feeds and nests, how many clutches of eggs it lays, down to the granular level of describing flipper beats and daily dives. Changes in signal speed or movement can also indicate that a turtle has been fished or captured and taken ashore.

Pinpointing the location of adult turtles and nesting sites is a fundamental aspect of conservation. Protecting sea turtle eggs from the devastating impacts of poachers is also essential to the species’ long term survival. To help ensure the tiny reptiles get the chance to crack out of their shells and trundle to the sea, the ingenious scientists at Paso Pacifico have taken egg monitoring to the next level with the creation of InvestEGGator. Designed to document the movement of illegally harvested sea turtle eggs, the 3-D printed wildlife tracker employs web-based smart-phone applications to covertly trace poachers. The plastic devices replicate olive ridley turtle eggs in size, shape, texture, and weight and can be hidden in turtle nests and remotely monitored in real-time to deter poachers and reduce illegal trade. Turtley egg-citing!

Whether olive ridley, Kemp’s ridley, leatherback, or hawksbill, sea turtles need safe operating space to survive on land and in our oceans. By mapping and monitoring adults, eggs, and nesting sites, working with local communities to promote conservation, and strengthening enforcement of anti-poaching laws, conservationists aim to keep sea turtles right where they belong—paddling around the big deep blue. If you’d like to learn more about mission-critical efforts to save sea turtles from extinction, check out what’s happening at the World Wildlife Fund.

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Lisa S. French October 19, 2020

New Guinea Singing Dogs—Not Gone

1-minute read

For the small remaining population of New Guinea singing dogs (Canis hallstromi), the recent news that their clan is no longer classified as extinct in the wild was surely music to their petal-shaped ears. At one time, the melancholy howls of the extraordinarily shy canines could be heard at dusk and dawn throughout the mountain ranges of New Guinea. Unfortunately, for the past 50 years, their haunting vocalizations have only been heard in captivity. Declared extinct in the 1970s as a result of habitat loss, it was believed that only 200-300 descendants of eight captured wild dogs were left on the planet.

Now the rare animals may get a new lease on life in the wilderness thanks in part to the distinctive sound of their howling. According to researchers, New Guinea singing dogs (NGSDs) are the only wild dogs adept at bird-like trilling—a rapid change in pitch from high to low and back again emitted at five to eight different frequencies that is unmistakably different from the vocalizations of wolves, coyotes, and dingoes. Typically, a lead dog starts the chorus, and other canine songsters quickly chime in with well-synchronized howls that stop simultaneously. It was this unique capability for harmonic vocalizing along with genome analysis that helped an expedition from the University of Papua to identify an isolated group of wild dogs in the highlands of New Guinea as ancestors of the NGSD family of highly skilled howlers.

With more than 32,000 species currently at risk of extinction, the discovery that the NGSDs living in captivity are not the end of their line is encouraging news—dogs not gone after all. That’s truly something to howl about!

Conservationists hope that by diversifying the animal’s genetic pool, they will be able to increase the population of NGSDs freely roaming the mountains of Papua singing their ancient and beautiful song of the wild.

You can learn more about the history and hopeful future of the singing dogs of New Guinea from the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation.

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Lisa S. French October 10, 2020

Problem-Solving Primates

2-minute read

Humans are innately skilled at choosing the right object for the task at hand. We’re able to comprehend that using a banana to hammer a nail or a colander to serve coffee won’t end in a good result. Primates are also capable of using objects as tools, but how do they decide which object will help to achieve their goal? What do they understand about how the world works?

Harvard scientists researching the evolution of knowledge in New World primates studied cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) in captivity to determine how they perceive what makes an object useful as a tool to acquire food. Presented with the challenge of obtaining a food pellet using one of two hooks, the tamarins consistently chose the one that would provide the easiest access with as little modification as possible. The primates perceived that a change in a hook’s color and texture was irrelevant to the task, but a change in size or shape could mean the difference between snack versus no snack. The tamarins seemed to understand which object worked best as a tool and which design features affected functionality. Clever cotton-tops!

Scientists believe that tool use is more likely to emerge in primate species like tamarins that rely on embedded food sources to survive. While the Harvard study provided new insight into tamarin tool use for snack acquisition in captivity, understanding how the animals obtain food in their natural habitat is critical to their conservation in a world undergoing rapid environmental change.

In July 2020, researchers observing primates in São Paulo, Brazil published the first record of spontaneous tool use in the wild by a member of one of the most endangered primate species on the planet—the black lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysopygus). The squirrel-sized, luxuriously maned tamarins live in Morro do Diabo State Park in the coastal Atlantic Forest and depend on a diet of tree gum, fruit, and protein-rich insects. According to the new research, like its captive cotton-top cousins, the black lion tamarin seemed to instinctively know which object worked best to extract food, using a small sharp stick to harvest bugs from hard-to-reach places under tree bark. That’s pretty impressive, given that the mini-monkeys don’t have opposable thumbs!

Despite their penchant for problem-solving, tamarins can’t prevent the ongoing loss of their rainforest habitat. Threatened by the double-whammy of deforestation and climate change, the black lion tamarin was believed to be extinct until 1972. There are now only about 1000 of the rare animals left. The Atlantic Forest, where black lion tamarins make their home alongside 21 other primate species, 260 amphibians, 138 mammals, and 6000 plant species, is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on our planet, but only 7% remains. Although the Atlantic Forest has been designated as one of the critical regions on Earth by the World Wildlife Fund and is listed as a World Heritage Site, it is still under threat.

You can learn about efforts to save the Atlantic Forest and all of its inhabitants from WWF. And if you’re especially interested in primates, you can get more info about the masterful monkey ways of cotton-top and black lion tamarins, as well as other highly intelligent species from the New England Primate Conservancy.

Oh, and don’t forget to participate in the annual celebration of successful food acquisition in the wild—Fat Bear Week. You can cast your vote for the best representative of brown bear plumpitude through October 6.

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Lisa S. French October 2, 2020

And The Answer Is Beavers

1.5-minute read

Conservation quiz: Which plant-eating members of the animal kingdom have been directing their big, buck-toothed energy towards the task of healing the planet? According to a study in south-central Sweden, beavers going about their day-to-day dam building business are helping to increase biodiversity that is essential to the functioning of freshwater ecosystems.

By constructing mud and stick barriers that increase water levels, the paddle-tailed environmental change agents are engineering pond habitats that support a 50% greater variety of plants and animals than similar beaver-free wetlands. While you might think a pond is a pond is a pond, according to environmental researchers, there are subtle differences in beaver ponds that make them hospitable to more species of fish, birds, insects, amphibians, and plant life. What’s good for beavers is good for biodiversity. And what’s good for biodiversity is good for people and the planet.

Beavers can be found throughout North America, and small populations exist in Scandinavia, Germany, France, Poland, and central Russia. Following their extinction in Sweden in the 1890s, beavers were reintroduced from neighboring Norway between 1922 and 1939. Dams built by the imported animals helped to expand wildlife habitats and increase resilience to both droughts and floods. Over the past half century, more countries have jumped on the bring-back-the-beavers bandwagon, including England, which recently reintroduced the industrious creatures to the wild after 400 years.

While beavers can’t stop freshwater biodiversity loss on their own, at a time when flora and fauna are decreasing at an alarming rate, wider implementation of beaver-based wetland-engineering is a holistic way to protect and restore ecosystems for a healthier biosphere.

By the way, if you’ve ever wondered why beavers have tangerine-colored teeth, it’s not because they’re tree stained. The keystone species’ incisors are handily reinforced with iron to help them gnaw through even the toughest tree trunks with ease. Beaver on, aquatic architects!

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Lisa S. French September 9, 2020

A Fish with Tooth-Covered, Retractable Eyeballs? Meet the Whale Shark!

2-minute read

If you’ve been celebrating Shark Week by binging and cringing your way through Jaws 1-4, you’re probably thinking that the massive teeth of those fictional fish are pretty darn scary. Well, maybe not the teeth so much as their limb-chomping potential. Now imagine a real-life shark with close to 3,000 teeth in its five-foot-wide mouth and a couple of thousand more covering its eyeballs. Talk about the fear factor! Except the real-life shark with all of those teeth is the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), and despite being about the size of a big yellow school bus, the primarily plankton-eating fish is quite a gentle creature.

While sharks are a notoriously toothy bunch, scientists at the Okinawa Churashima Research Center studying optical adaptations in vertebrates recently discovered that the whale shark has tiny teeth where they didn’t expect to find them—around its iris. So why does the whale shark need eye armor? Unlike most vertebrates, the fish has no eyelids to protect its small, protruding peepers from underwater hazards. The oak leaf-shaped tooth-like projections, known as denticles, shield the shark’s eyes from abrasions as it travels the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans in search of the large quantities of food that it needs to survive.

As if that evolutionary adaptation weren’t freaky enough, the whale shark has another unusual eye protection mechanism to compensate for its lack of lids. If the situation calls for it, the whale shark can retract its eyeballs into its eye sockets. One eye retraction event observed by researchers was in response to camera strobes. It seems that despite being popular subjects for underwater photographers, whale sharks are no fans of the flash. Although a few other lidless species, including electric rays, guitarfish, and leopard frogs can also tuck in their eyeballs, the whale shark’s retractable, armored eye combo is fairly rare.

Sadly, like many shark species, the whale shark is threatened with extinction. The global numbers of the large, slow-moving fish have more than halved over the last 75 years as a result of overfishing, bycatch (see video), and propeller strikes. The whale shark is now listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as endangered. As recently reported in Science, sharks are now functionally extinct in the waters of eight countries.

Even though these dentally well-endowed creatures may look like they can handle whatever comes their way, sharks still need all of the support that they can get when it comes to protecting their habitat. You can learn more about these fascinating fish and what you can do to help keep them safely in the swim from Ocean Conservancy. And you can track migrating whale sharks in real-time via satellite courtesy of Conservation International.

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Lisa S. French August 15, 2020

Bickering Bats

2-minute read

Although hanging out in tightly packed clusters comes naturally to fruit bats, apparently, proximity breeds crankiness in the furry night fliers. Tel Aviv University scientists studying the purpose and meaning of Egyptian fruit bat chat have concluded that they’re big on bickering, routinely calling out their roost mates on personal boundary violations. While the highly social and vocal animals may be a universally quarrelsome bunch, the researchers found that the fruit bat’s everyday disputes have to do with four specific intraspecies deal breakers. Analysis of close to 15,000 vocalizations recorded over 75 days showed that the winged mammals frequently engage in squabbles about food, roosting spots, sleeping arrangements, and unwanted advances.

Bats air their grievances face to face, directing tiny tongue-lashings at perceived offenders—no passive-aggressive, behind-the-bat grumbling for these creatures. Using state-of-the-art acoustic processing techniques, researchers were able to identify who was complaining, what they were complaining about, and who they were complaining to. Based on the tone and intensity of the confrontation, they were also able to predict the outcome with a fair degree of accuracy. As you might expect, the animal’s arguments ended in one of two ways: reconciliation or separation. It seems that even between fruit bats, when it comes to effective conflict resolution, it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.

So to cut back on bat bickering: paws off the personal mangoes, respect the roosting space, one bat per bunk, and romance by invitation only. Because fruit bats have feelings too, and they’re not shy about expressing them.

In addition to being eager, albeit cranky communicators, bats are also very important pollinators. Over 300 species of fruit depend on them for pollination. If you’re a tropical fruit-o-phile, you have bats to thank for your mangoes, bananas, guavas, and agave. You can get more bat facts and learn what scientists are doing to make sure that the only mammals capable of true flight live to pollinate another day at The Nature Conservancy.

By the way, if you’re in need of some nature-based soul soothing, the talented artists at Shika Shika music collective have produced another mood-boosting birdsong mix to help you get your groove back. The non-profit, crowd-funded digital album was created to raise awareness of the plight of some of our planet’s most threatened winged inhabitants. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean features the black catbird, the Jamaican blackbird, the bearded screech owl, and other tropical beauties on background vocals. Have a listen!

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Lisa S. French August 7, 2020

We’re Reindeer. We’re Here to Help.

1.5-minute read

800 Gigatons or 1.764 quadrillion pounds. That’s how much greenhouse gas (GHG) lies under the soil in the northernmost regions of our planet. No matter what metric we use, that’s quite a lot—about 174 years’ worth of annual global passenger car emissions. Keeping carbon in cold storage under the permafrost for the last 2.58 million years has worked out really well from a life-sustaining perspective. But accelerating climate change resulting from increasing CO₂ emissions is now thawing frozen soils and releasing even more carbon into the atmosphere, creating a positive feedback loop. More warming is causing more thawing, which is releasing more carbon, which is causing more warming. We hate it when that happens.

According to a recent study in Nature, climate scientists racing to develop strategies to keep global warming below 1.5-2.0°C are working on a hoofed herbivore hack to keep the perma in permafrost and prevent the additional release of GHGs from Arctic soil. Researchers from the Universities of Stockholm and Hamburg and the Russian Academy of Sciences studying the climate impacts of reindeer and bison trampling the tundra believe the movement of large populations of megafauna may have an important role to play in keeping the planet cool.

Like a fluffy down comforter, snow insulates the soil from cold Arctic air, allowing the permafrost to thaw. Herds of roaming, grazing animals compact snow, reducing its insulating effect, which helps to preserve permafrost temperatures and keep GHG’s in the ground. In two study sites in northern Sweden and Russia, introducing substantial numbers of big mammals, including reindeer, bison, horses, and yaks, resulted in a 1.9°C degree reduction on average in soil temperature during winter and spring. Researchers predict that increasing mammal populations could result in 80% of permafrost soils remaining at an average temperature below -4°C by 2100.

At current emission rates, global temperatures are projected to rise by 2-4°C by the end of the century, and the ground temperature will be above freezing in many regions. If increasing the number of hoofed herbivores traversing the frozen North can prevent the permafrost from thawing, help keep massive amounts of carbon in the ground, and prevent further warming, all we can say is walk on, ungulates.

You can learn more about the ongoing efforts to combat climate change by integrating more megafauna into Arctic ecosystems at Pleistocene Park.

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Lisa S. French June 21, 2020