I saw this squirrel gathering leaves for its nest in its mouth and then climbing a tree in my backyard. It repeated this many times all morning. I saw it doing so at least 5 times and likely it did so many times when I did not see it.
See more backyard wildlife posts on the Curious Cat Science Blog
Related: Squirrel Eating Holly Berries – Backyard Wildlife: Red-tailed Hawk – Backyard Wildlife: Family of Raccoons
photo by Justin Hunter
The bee colony collapse disorder has been ongoing for more than 10 years and while some scientific understanding has been gained the complexity of the problem continues to stifle progress. The first post I wrote on this blog about colony collapse disorder was published in 2006.
As early as 2007 a virus was found to be one likely factor in bee colony collapse disorder. But progress has been slow especially since likely solutions were fought by those profiting from existing conditions (widespread use of powerful pesticides). In 2012, I wrote another post for this Curious Cat Science blog: Study of the Colony Collapse Disorder Continues as Bee Colonies Continue to Disappear.
Scientist unveils blueprint to save bees
The UN conference is already debating new guidelines on pollinators that will recommend reducing and gradually phasing out the use of existing pesticides, but Christmann’s research suggests this can be done without financial pain or a loss of production.
The need for a change is increasingly evident. More than 80% of food crops require pollination but the populations of insects that do most of this work have collapsed. In Germany, this fall is by up to 75% over the past 25 years. Puerto Rico has seen an even sharper decline. Numbers are not available in most countries, but almost all report an alarming decline.
Related: Another Bee Study Finds CCD is Likely Due to Combination of Factors Including Pesticides (2013) – The Study of Bee Colony Collapses Continues (2007) – Europe Bans Certain Pesticides, USA Just Keeps Looking, Bees Keep Dying (2013) – Apple Farmers Use Pigs Instead of Pesticides
It is wonderful to see what great things people accomplish to improve their lives using sensible, and fairly simple, engineering.
15 Year-Old Kenyan Prodigy, Richard Turere, Who Created “Lion Lights”
The astonishing aspect of this is that Turere installed the whole system by himself, without receiving any training in electronics or engineering.
This is a great video which includes good examples of the value to experimenting, learning and adapting. Iteration is a critical skill when developing solutions. Try out prototypes and learn from what happens. Use that knowledge to develop new solutions or modify the existing solutions and experiment some more. Continue to iterate and improve.
This is another great example of people using their initiative, creativity and engineering talent to create appropriate technology solutions to create solutions that improve their lives. It is great to see how these efforts continue over time, this BBC article follows up on Richard Turere several years after his initial success:
What happened to the boy who chased away the lions?
Lion Lights 2.0 costs $200 (£150) to install. Half of the money usually comes from NGOs while the rest is provided by the herder.
This version has 16 different flashing light settings and Richard’s latest update is a homemade wind turbine for days when clouds limit the solar power potential.
…
But while his idea has travelled, support for Richard as a young innovator and the implementation of his own Lion Lights has stalled in recent years. He thinks Kenya could do more to help young innovators like himself.
“There are many young people in Kenya with brilliant ideas, better even than mine – they just need support,” he says.
They need someone to be there to tell them, “this idea is really nice., let’s develop it to help communities”.
The efforts of so many great young people to create solutions that make the world a better place are inspiring.
Related: Electric Wind – Beehive Fence Protects Farms from Elephants – Appropriate Technology and Focus on Improving Lives at MIT – Using The Building of Robots to Engage Students in Learning
I see red-tailed hawks in my backyard occasionally. This one has a squirrel on a high tree branch in my backyard. The video shows it fly away.
When I hear a murder of crows squawking loudly I often can spot a red-tailed hawk (or perhaps some other hawks) near my yard.
Related: Backyard Wildlife: Sharpshinned Hawk – Red-shouldered Hawk – Backyard Wildlife: Fox – Backyard Wildlife: Blue Jay
Dogs and wolves share sense of fair play
The key finding was that when the partner got a high value treat, the animal doing the task refused to continue with it.
Gray Wolf by Gary Kramer (USFWS), public domain
This is a similar result as that found with Capuchin monkeys that don’t like being paid less than others.
The human impact on dogs isn’t entirely absent though. Pet dogs are less sensitive to being treated unfairly – probably because of their experience with us!
It is fun to see these results mirror aspects of our psychology. It is fun to see how these experiments test out animal’s responses.
Related: Goats Excel at Learning and Remembering a Complex Tasks – Rats Show Empathy-driven Behavior – Insightful Problem Solving in an Asian Elephants – How Wolves Changed the Yellowstone Ecosystem
This clip shows elephants learning to work together to achieve what they can’t achieve alone (from BBC’s Super Smart Animals). It is interesting to see what animals are capable of. See the related post links for more amazing animal behavior.
Related: Insightful Problem Solving in an Asian Elephant (2007) – Crows can Perform as Well as 7 to 10-year-olds on cause-and-effect Water Displacement Tasks – Beehive Fence Protects Farms from Elephants – Capuchin Monkeys Don’t Like Being Paid Less Than Their Peers – Friday Fun: Bird Using Bait to Fish
In this webcast The Brain Scoop takes an interesting look at the homes of eusocial animals and other insects. The video includes many interesting details including that adult weaver ants can’t produce the silk used to weave leaves together so they pick up their larva and use them like a glue stick.
Related: For Many Crops Ants Can Provide Pest Protection Superior or Equal to Chemicals at a Much Lower Cost – Why Don’t All Ant Species Replace Queens in the Colony, Since Some Do – Symbiotic relationship between ants and bacteria – Huge Termite Mound in Nigeria
Bird on the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Wisconsin. Please comment if you know what type of bird this is.
Related: Backyard Wildlife: Blue Jay – Bird Using Bread as Bait to Catch Fish – Friday Cat Fun: Cat and Crow Friends – Backyard Wildlife: Sharpshinned Hawk
Close up of the large, thin, lizard
These photos were taken across the street from my condo in downtown Johor Bahru, Malaysia. From my window I could see Singapore.
It is at least a meter long from head to tail (probably longer, the tail is really long). Still it isn’t huge since it is very narrow (more like a very thick snake with legs than anything else).
A few months before seeing the lizard in the photos I saw a really big lizard 1 block from the Johor Bahru Customs Immigration and Quarantine complex. It was easily 2 meters long (head to end of the tail) and quite large (stout). It was a different species I am pretty sure.
I was standing for awhile looking at a cool patch of wild greenery. All of a sudden I heard a noise and looked down; this large lizard probably got tired of me standing so and moved quickly into the brush. I hadn’t seen it. I would guess it was sunning itself, before I wandered over. Too bad I didn’t have my camera ready.
I took this photo of this mother Raccoon with 3 youngsters in my backyard. Raccoon’s are pretty big; it is somewhat amazing to me they manage to find enough to eat. I have seen individuals around over the years (not very often though) but only saw this family twice.
I continue to have many wildlife sightings in my backyard which is quite nice.
Related: Backyard Wildlife: Fox – Backyard Wildlife: Great Spreadwing Damselfly – Red-Shouldered Hawk – Backyard Wildlife: Turtle
I can’t even see all the numbers before they disappear. But chimpanzees are shown seeing a flash of 9 numbers on a screen and then pointing to where they were on the screen in order from 1 to 9. Human test subjects can’t even do 5 numbers most of the time.
Related: Chimpanzees Use Spears to Hunt Bush Babies – Orangutan Attempts to Hunt Fish with Spear – Crows can Perform as Well as 7 to 10-year-olds on cause-and-effect Water Displacement Tasks – Tropical Lizards Can Solve Novel Problems and Remember the Solutions
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