People from a planet
without flowers
would think we must be mad
with joy the whole time
to have such things about us.
Iris Murdoch
Happy Spring Equinox
Lisa S. French
March 20, 2023
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
2-minute read
What can we learn from bears about space travel?
Although the earthbound mammals have never achieved liftoff, according to research from the University of Minnesota, studying black and brown bears’ ability to bounce right back to roaming after a long winter’s nap may help scientists to develop strategies that would enable humans to overcome the negative physiological impacts of months-long interplanetary flight.
Every fall, as temperatures begin to drop, the power sleepers pack on the pounds (see Fat Bear week) in preparation for winter hibernation, an extreme state of starvation and dehydration. In the spring, after a half-year of physical inactivity and living off fat reserves, the animals can return to normal bear business within minutes of emerging from their dens, major organs intact and with little or no bone or muscle loss.
Amazingly, after consecutive months of immobility, bears lose only 23 percent of their strength, while humans would lose 90 percent over the same period. So how do they survive the big sleep without any debilitating bodily impacts? According to scientists, the burly omnivores have evolved with adaptations that significantly reduce their body temperature and heart rate to conserve energy. During hibernation, a bear’s temperature can drop by 8 -12 degrees and its heart rate to an average of just 4.3 beats per minute with minimal ill effect.
And what does that mean for the future of manned missions to Mars? Researchers are investigating whether inducing a bear-like state of hibernation would enable humans to endure the long haul of prolonged space travel—another beary good example of how we look to nature to inspire innovation.
ICYMI Nature News
First Bear Out of the Den
The first bear to emerge from winter slumber at Yellowstone has been spotted by a park biologist. It seems dreams of space have taken a backseat to securing a prime spot at the all-you-can-eat post-hibernation buffet.
The Loudest Animal on the Planet
Danish scientists have discovered how whales produce the loudest sounds in the animal kingdom—clicking nose lips. Listen to the nasal chatter here.
Pollinating Dance Instructors
We’ve written previously about how bees communicate food locations through an intricate waggle dance. Now researchers have discovered that newbies learn their honey-making moves from mentors. Swing your pollinating partner!
Fairy Lantern Flower Back from the Dead
Believed to be extinct for the past 30 years, the delicate fairy lantern flower has been rediscovered in Japan. You can see what the photosynthesis-free flower looks like here. Flower? Mushroom? Mushroom-flower?
Good News for the Earth’s Oceans
It took a long time, but the United Nations has announced the passage of a High Seas Treaty to protect marine biodiversity and 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. Not a moment too soon!
2023 National Wildlife Photo Contest
If you’re a nature-loving photographer anywhere in the world and over the age of 13, you can share your beautiful views to help protect nature in the National Wildlife Federation annual photo contest. Find out how to participate here. Go wild, happy snappers!
Btw, March 14th (3.14) is Pi Day
You can read how the number pi (π) manifests in nature here. And whether you’re into numbers or sweets and savories, you can find some delicious ways to celebrate right here! Strawberry slab, anyone?
Lisa S. French
March 13, 2023
Our task must be
to free ourselves
by widening our circle
of compassion
to embrace all living creatures
and the whole of nature
and its beauty.
Albert Einstein
In honor of World Wildlife Day, we’d like to thank you for reading with us—and for planting with us.
Every month, with your kind support, Favorite World Press contributes to global forest restoration projects that provide critical habitats for endangered species like the Bengal tiger.
Through our partnership with Tree-Nation, we plant trees in tropical regions that host 80% of the world’s wondrous wildlife. You can learn more about how we grow with Tree-Nation to widen the circle of compassion here.
FWP Carbon Capture Report
From April 2022 through February 2023 the trees we’ve planted across 12 projects bring our carbon capture total to 2,778 tons of CO2. That’s equivalent to 6,896,212 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle, 337,954,898 smartphones charged, or 120,259 trash bags of waste recycled instead of landfilled.
Lisa S. French
March 3, 2023
2-minute read
Whether or not we get treated fairly is one of the metrics that humans use to assess the quality and potential longevity of our relationships. Ideally, we seek to collaborate with partners in all realms of our existence who acknowledge our contributions and expectations and are as attentive to our treatment as they are to their own.
Unremedied inequity can lead to a negative interpretation of events, a breakdown in communication, and an unwillingness to cooperate on future endeavors. According to a series of landmark studies, we share our desire for fair treatment and rejection of injustice with some savvy members of the animal kingdom—particularly when it comes to equal pay for equal work.
Do I Look Like I Just Fell Out of a Tree?
Behavioral researchers from Emory University examining non-human primates’ response to equal versus unequal rewards for completing a task revealed that the perceptive animals did not respond well to being taken advantage of.
When chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys and their task partners both received cucumber slices for their efforts, they were equally satisfied with the outcome. Given a choice, however, the animals prefer to be paid in grapes. If only one partner received grapes, the unfair compensation resulted in outright primate protest from the other, and refusal to either continue the task or to accept the inferior reward. In some cases, the work stoppage and reward rejection were accompanied by water spitting and cage-rattling to drive the dissatisfaction home.
Interestingly, to preserve a valued long-term relationship, some chimps would react to the unfair treatment of their partners by refusing the better reward. Researchers believe that the short-term sacrifice was not necessarily driven by a desire to do the right thing but to increase the odds of future cooperation by maintaining a basic sense of fairness. Similar to the realm of human relations, more equitable individual outcomes for the chimps had a greater likelihood of leading to more stable and harmonious interactions in their communities—wise apes.
ICYMI Nature News
A Wondrous Whale Event
The lucky passengers of a National Geographic Antarctic cruise experienced an extraordinary event in January, the gathering of 1,000 fin whales. You can check out the largest pod seen in over a century here.
Must-See Eagle TV
If you haven’t been keeping up with the Big Bear bald eagle nest cam, you’re in for a treat. You can keep 24-7 tabs on how expecting raptors Jackie and Shadow are coping with California’s wintry weather while waiting for the arrival of their eaglets. Visit the nest!
Get Ready to Wear It Wild
If you’ve been looking for a legit reason to wear your zebra-striped jumpsuit or cheetah-patterned chinos to work or school, you are in luck. You can sign up today for the World Wildlife Fund Wear it Wild challenge and commit to one day of wearing a creature costume of your choice to fundraise to help protect nature. Whether you’re inclined to present as a tiger, tapir, or tree toad, you can find out how to participate here.
And Finally, Snow in NYC
Winter without snow is like cake without frosting. It took a long time, but after almost four worrisome months trending towards tropical, snow has finally fallen in NYC. Not big news, perhaps, nor a big pile-up, but we’re excited about it nonetheless. And more, please!
Lisa S. French
February 28, 2023
1.5-minute read
You can lead an elephant to water, but you can’t make it drink.
The desert-dwelling elephants of Namibia live in one of the harshest, driest landscapes on Earth. The average annual rainfall in the Namib Desert, where the mega-mammals make their home, is just 2mm, and permanent bodies of water are few and very far between.
Conservation researchers studying the survival strategies of the water-dependent herbivores were surprised to learn that despite having traveled hundreds of miles across inhospitable drylands, the intrepid trekkers weren’t overwhelmingly slurp-happy to quench their thirst at human-made drinking pools. Rather than rehydrate with readily available water, the elephants would use their feet and trunks to dig their own wells in adjacent dry riverbeds.
You Don’t Expect Us to Drink This, Do You?
So, what compelled the parched pachyderms to take a pass on the life-sustaining fluid from pre-dug pools? A quest for clean water. After comparing samples from the two water sources, researchers discovered that the multi-user boreholes were contaminated with bacteria that made drinking from them a non-starter for the discerning animals.
Although elephants have an extraordinarily sensitive olfactory system, it’s unclear whether the bacteria were detected through taste or scent, or both. One thing is certain, continuing to study how megafauna adapt to changes in water availability in a warming world will be critical to their survival.
ICYMI Nature News
Easy Ways to Stop Extinction
As scientists scramble to conserve our planet’s remaining biodiversity, FWP’s favorite cartoonist, First Dog on the Moon, recommends three easy steps to stop extinction. Most importantly, we have to want to. Count us in!
Want to Live Longer? Plant Trees
Good news for city dwellers. According to new research from the U.S. Forest Service, planting trees in urban neighborhoods can increase longevity. Another great reason to dig in and green your block!
New Designs for Robo-Planting
Speaking of planting, scientists are developing new solutions for planting trees and crops and fertilizing soil that mimic natural seed dispersal. Good to know. Until further notice, we’re still planting the old-fashioned way.
Meet the DIY Cockatoos
These brainy handy-birds know just what tools to use to solve a puzzle box. Ooh, can they unclog a sink?
Nat Geo’s Photos of the Year
Don’t forget to feast your eyes on National Geographic’s award-winning photographs of the natural world. Enjoy the splendor!
Lisa S. French
February 20, 2023
1.5-minute read
If you were a wild feline trying to creep through the canopy of a rainforest undetected or stalk the tall grasses of a savanna in stealth mode, which pattern and color would you choose for your pelt? Striped, spotted, or solid? Brown, beige, grey, or maybe green? Green might seem like a natural choice, but as you’ve probably noticed, mammal fur doesn’t come in green (and here’s why).
Of course, lions, tigers, and leopards don’t pick their own pelt patterns. Through the process of evolution, nature provides each of the 40 wild cat species with coloring that ensures they don’t stand out in a crowd. According to a University of Bristol study, the differences in patterning relate to how, when, and where the animals hunt. Cats, big and small, are creepers and leapers. Their primary meal acquisition strategy is to stalk their prey until they are close enough to pounce. Blending in with background colors, shapes, and textures makes keeping a low profile a whole lot easier.
Researchers believe that the more complex the animal’s surroundings, the more intricate the pelt pattern. Cats like the fancy-furred clouded leopard that live in dense tropical forests have evolved with dark-spotted, patchy pelts that blend in with shifting patterns of shadow and light compared to solid-colored cats like lions that spend their days prowling wide open, relatively tree-less grassland environments.
It seems that when it comes to surviving in the wild, there’s no such thing as too matchy-matchy for felines—maybe that’s why leopards never change their spots.
ICYMI Nature News
Cancer Detecting Lab Ants
French scientists have trained ants to detect cancer cells through tiny supersensitive receptors in their antennae. This is how they do it.
Bringing Back the Kelp Keepers
The Center for Biological Diversity is on a mission to protect and restore Pacific Coast kelp forests by reintroducing ecosystem engineering otters to Oregon and Northern California. What an otterly good idea!
Bald Eagles in Brooklyn?
For the first time in over 100 years, a pair of bald eagles are trying to build a nest in the Jamaica Bay wetlands. Egg-citing! You can learn more about the new arrivals and NYC’s total raptor mania from the good people helping to restore urban bird habitat right here.
FWP Carbon Capture Report
New Year. More trees. We’re rolling on with Tree-Nation in 2023, planting more community-supporting, habitat-restoring, planet-cooling trees in places where they provide the most benefit. The trees we planted from April 2022 through January 2023 capture carbon equivalent to 6,166,444 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle, 2,748,608 pounds of coal burned, or 302,191,960 smartphones charged. We couldn’t do it without you. Thank you for your support!
Lisa S. French
February 10, 2023
1.5-minute read
How much do you imagine birds know about what their feathered friends might be thinking? Are they capable of putting themselves in another bird’s shoes—if birds wore shoes—or do they simply rely on instinct to navigate intra-avian interactions?
The ability to comprehend that another’s thoughts and desires may differ from our own was long believed to be a uniquely human cognitive trait. Recent research has revealed that predicting and interpreting the beliefs and intentions of others is a skill that we share with some members of the crow family. Despite having a distinctly different brain structure, these brainy birds are capable of perspective-taking, the complex thinking and behavioral flexibility that enables them to ignore their own preferences and predict and respond to the preferences of their mates.
A University of Cambridge study revealed that the courting male Eurasian jay could perceive that the way to his best bird’s heart was through her stomach. Given a choice between two types of favorite worms to feed his mate, and regardless of which wriggly delicacy he wanted, the insightful jay chose to feed her the type of worm she had not already eaten. Because both humans and animals would prefer not to eat the same food for every meal, researchers concluded that the male jays paid attention to what their mates ate and predicted that offering her food she had not grown tired of would be more likely to please her. It seems, for Eurasian jays, to love a bird is to cater to her worm wishes—food for thought.
ICYMI Nature News
Dolphins Return to Da Bronx
Delighted New Yorkers welcomed the return of dolphins to the Bronx River this week thanks to a decades-long cleanup effort to restore the aquatic habitat. Happy to have you back, finned fellows!
A Vaccine for Endangered Bees
Help is on the way for honeybees plagued by a deadly bacterial disease. The first bee vaccine developed to save hives has been approved in the United States. Roll up those teeny-tiny sleeves!
Turtle Moms Talk to Their Eggs
Researchers have discovered that giant South American river turtles chat to their eggs before they hatch. Not only that, but the pre-hatched turtles also chirp together to coordinate the big breakout. Ready, set, go!
These Frogs Hide their Blood to Go Stealth
Scientists in the Amazon have learned that tropical glass frogs can divert their blood to their livers to make themselves invisible. Ooh, amphibian party trick!
Keeping It Cool with Snot Bubbles
According to a study at Curtin University, echidnas, prickly egg-laying mammals native to Australia, cope with high temperatures by blowing snot bubbles to keep their noses wet. Wait, doesn’t everyone?
Time to Plan Your Pollinator Patch
To reach their goal of 25,000 new pollinator gardens across the U.S. in 2023, Save our Monarchs is inviting every school, scout troop, and 4-H club across the U.S. to pitch in and plant to help save the endangered butterflies. Find out how to get your free seeds here.
Lisa S. French
January 27, 2023
1.5-minute read
Before we get down to tree business, wherever you are in the world, we hope that your new year is off to a promising start. Beaming you a gargantuan dose of good fortune in the months ahead.
If you’re a regular reader, you know we often write about how forests help support life on Earth: combating climate change, purifying air and water, enhancing well-being, providing habitat for wildlife, and food, energy, and economic security for rural communities.
Every month we share updates on the carbon capture potential of the trees that we plant in reforestation projects around the world. Because what we plant is as important as where we plant, we’d like to introduce you to some of the leafy green, multi-purpose marvels that help keep the planet in good working order:
Nile Tulip
Markhamia lutea
- Fast-growing
- Provides shade for crops
- Prevents soil erosion
- Bark and leaves used for traditional medicine
Red Silk Cotton Tree
Bombax ceiba
- Ornamental
- Restores native woodland
- Provides habitat for birds and bees
- Edible seeds, flowers, and leaves
Horse Tamarind
Leucaena leucocephala
- Drought tolerant
- Restores native woodland
- Provides human and animal nutrition
- Edible seeds, flowers, and leaves
Teak
Tectona grandis
- Fast-growing hardwood
- Used for carpentry and construction
- Provides human and animal nutrition
- Used for traditional and modern medicine
Pombeiro
Tapirira guianensis
- Big-canopied shade tree
- Provides habitat for birds and bees
- Provides human and animal nutrition
- Used for traditional medicine
Croton
Croton megalocarpus
- Fast-growing, 94% survival rate
- Provides animal nutrition
- Serves as fencing and windbreak
- Used for traditional medicine
As you can see, in addition to cooling the planet, trees are good for all manner of important, life-sustaining things. Wherever the trees we plant put down roots, they don’t just stand around looking pretty; they get to work providing local and global benefits. With your kind support, we’re glad to continue to offer them job opportunities through the Tree-Nation platform in 2023.
2022 FWP Carbon Capture Report:
The 16 species of trees we planted across 12 projects from April through December of 2022 bring our total CO2 capture to 2,365 tons. That’s equivalent to 102,360 trash bags of waste recycled instead of landfilled, 2,616,392 pounds of coal burned, or 266,092 gallons of gasoline consumed.
Lisa S. French
January 15, 2023
