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Good News in Case Mass Species Extinction Has You Down

Posted on October 26, 2021 by Sam Perrin Leave a comment

At the end of last month, the natural world was hit with (yet another) deluge of bad news, what with 23 species newly classified as extinct. But as always, I believe it’s important to remember that there’s always good news out there, whether you need it for inspiration, hope, or just plain relief in the face of humanity’s apparent war on the planet.

Opinions

Locating Shark’s Teeth in the Phone Book

Posted on March 18, 2019 by tanjakp Leave a comment

Image Credit: Pixabay, Pixabay licence, Image Cropped

Supervisors: they’re our mentors, bosses, idols. Sometimes, they can seem almost super-human – they know everything, and find every single flaw in your work.

So it can be easy to forget that your supervisors and various other higher-ups are not necessarily a species of perfect, paper mass-producing, hyper-creative geniuses, but in reality just experienced people, who still make mistakes and have “brain-farts”. The following is a personal encounter I had which serves as proof.

Opinions

The Ecology of Atlantis

Posted on January 31, 2019 by Sam Perrin Leave a comment

Image Credit: Aquaman, 2019

We look at the world of Atlantis from 2018’s Aquaman. Why would you domesticate a whale? Can a turtle grow to the size of a Great White Shark? Can an octopus play the drums? Spoiler alert: probably not.

5:48 – The History of Aquaman
10:33 – The Ecology of Atlantis
38:43 – The Karathen vs. Gypsy Danger (Pacific Rim)

You can also find us on iTunes and Google Play.

Cinematica Animalia

Populations Can’t Grow without Homes

Posted on December 12, 2018 by Adam Hasik Leave a comment

Sea otters are one of many charismatic species found along the California coast, yet recovery doesn’t seem to be helping them. Is it something about their habitat that is preventing population growth? (Image Credit: Mike Baird, CC BY 2.0, Image Cropped)

Gaps in kelp cover may threaten the recovery of California sea otters (2018) Nicholson et al., Ecography, DOI:10.1111/ecog.03561

The Crux

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the fur trade was a massive industry in North America. As a result, many species were hunted and trapped to near extinction. The California sea otter (Enhydra lutris) was reduced in population to less than 50 total individuals. The enactment of the Internation Fur Treaty allowed the species (and others) to come back from the brink of extinction, and they now number over 3200 individuals and are spread across 525km of the California coast. Interestingly, although the population is recovering, it has not bounced back as quickly as other protected mammals living in the same habitat. The California sea lion, for example, has a maximum population growth rate more than twice that of the sea otter (11.7% compared to 5%).

Despite the remarkable recovery of the species, the sea otters occupy less than a quarter of their historic range and have not expanded along the coast in 20 years. The authors of this paper wanted to investigate what it is about the sea otters and their habitat that is slowing this population’s growth rate and spread along the coast.