Critter Geek

Some interesting animal stories were in the news this week; I just wish more of them were good news.

• Study Sees ‘Global Collapse’ of Fish Species – this well-respected report has disturbing news. The study looked at data from 1950 through 2003…almost a third of the species are down to ten percent of previous levels. From the New York Times article:
  

  “Dr. Worm said he analyzed the data for the first time on his laptop while he was overseeing a roomful of students taking an exam. What he saw, he said, was “just a smooth line going down.” And when he extrapolated the data into the future “to see where it ends at 100 percent collapse, you arrive at 2048.”

  “The hair stood up on the back of my neck and I said, ‘This cannot be true,’” he recalled. He said he ran the data through his computer again, then did the calculations by hand. The results were the same.

  The original report is available here for a fee.

• Bear cub right at home on Petersburg dock – at least eight motherless black bear cubs have been spotted in Alaska, possibly due to poor salmon runs and low berry growth this summer.
• Elephants see themselves in the mirror
  Movie Camera – Happy the elephant suggested that she could recognize herself in a mirror by repeatedly touching a spot marked on her head. I thought this tidbit was interesting:

  A previous attempt to investigate self-recognition failed, apparently because the mirrors used were too small. “Elephants don’t have the best eyesight,” de Waal says. “It’s important that the mirror is the size of an elephant and is accessible.”

• Homo on the Range: Gay Marriage in the Animal Kingdom (definitely my favorite article title all week) – about Oslo’s Botanical Gardens’ special exhibit, “Against Nature?”