My Science School

A town in Washington has a treetop bridge for squirrels, named Nutty Narrows Bridge. Located in Longview, it looks like a tiny suspension bridge with its deck just wide enough for squirrel traffic. The bridge was built by one Amos J. Peters in 1963 to save squirrels from getting squashed by passing cars on the busy thoroughfare of Olympia Way.

The Nutty Narrows is locally significant to the city of Longview under Criterion A for entertainment/recreation due to its beloved status as a city icon and its provision of opportunity for wildlife viewing. The bridge represents the efforts of a small group of citizens who created a beloved community landmark to save local squirrels from having to cross a busy thoroughfare. The bridge has become a favorite local roadside attraction and has remained an important landmark in Longview, Washington. The Nutty Narrows Bridge is significant under the National Register eligibility Criterion A, for its entertainment/recreation related themes as a reflection of the development of the bridge to solve the burgeoning need for a safe passageway for the city's squirrel population over Olympia Way in Longview, Washington. The period of significance begins and ends in 1963, the year of construction. Amos Peters, the bridge's designer and constructor, discovered the need for the bridge when he noticed a red squirrel in the road in front of his office building that had met a vehicular demise. Peters envisioned the bridge and then, by constructing it, created one of the most beloved novelty attractions in Longview. After the construction of the Nutty Narrows Bridge, a large squirrel statue was constructed in Amos Peters' memory in a nearby park and four other squirrel bridges have since been constructed within the Longview city limits.

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Every gardener knows that slugs and snails are active in warm weather and absent in cold weather. They come out after it rains or when plants are watered. This makes it the best time to put out your slug and snail pellet baits. They hibernate or die during heat and drought. Snails and slugs are more active on cloudy days and less active on sunny days.

You can use the aversion of slugs and snails to heat and cold to trap them for easy disposal. In hot weather, dampen the ground in a corner of your garden and cover it with plywood or a flower pot turned upside down. Slugs and snails will gather in the damp, cooler haven you provide them so you can more easily kill or remove them from your property.

You can also kill slugs and snails with cold. Let them find a winter home under a pile of leaves or a piece of plywood, and then remove their cover the first night you have a heavy frost. The cold will take care of your infestation with no need of toxic chemicals or tedious picking by hand.

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It is a misconception that slugs have four noses. These slimy creatures have two retractable pairs of tentacles. They use the upper tentacles for seeing and smelling. These eye-stalks can function independently and can be regenerated if lost. The smaller, lower tentacles are used for feeling and tasting. Slugs eat using a radula, a tongue-like organ covered with thousands of sharp protrusions. Many species of slugs play an important role in the ecosystem by feeding on decaying vegetation.

Slugs also have thousands and thousands of teeth. These tiny chompers are part of a rasping structure called a radula that’s unique to mollusks. And in case that doesn't seem weird enough, slugs essentially breathe through a blowhole that opens up on one side of their bodies. This round pore is called a pneumostome.

But that’s just the anatomy of land-living slugs. Sea slugs have their own incredible features. For example, some breathe using delicate feather-like gills that surround their butt holes, and they smell with neon-colored, bizarrely shaped protrusions called rhinophores.

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Many of us may have visited zoos or sanctuaries, and caught (more than) a glimpse of wild animals. Are zoos and sanctuaries the same, and can the words be used interchangeably? If not, how are they different from each other? Come, let's find out!

Zoos

Zoos, or zoological parks, are places where animals are kept for public viewing. Invariably, they are kept in cages, which means they are not in their natural homes or habitats. Since they are not in their natural habitats, it means they could have come from anywhere from another city, State, country, or continent, travelling very far from their original homes. Many of the acquariums in the world also do something similar - they house creatures living in water, for public viewing.

Sanctuaries

Wildlife sanctuaries are not created for exhibiting animals. These are places where the animals usually live in their original habitats, and they and their spaces are monitored (invariably) by the government. Which also means that the animals are not normally brought from other places. Places such as national parks and biosphere reserves also preserve and protect a region's flora and fauna, among others.

Which is better?

Zoos were created several decades ago as a means of educating people about different kinds of creatures, especially animals, from around the world. It aimed to encourage people to watch animals up close and also understand their behaviour better. However, lately, the calls for closing down zoos across the world have been growing stronger among not just animal rights activists and conservationists but discerning public too. They say zoos violate an animal's right to live in freedom and in its original habitat with its families, and often in places without adequate care, food, hygiene, or space. Also with technology bringing wildlife to even our mobile phones today, the reasoning that zoos educate people does not hold water anymore. Considering these factors, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks certainly offer animals much better spaces and life, protection and the liberty to live in their own habitats. While animals here are not exactly put in cages, several aspects, including habitat loss, encroachment, poaching, illegal trade, human activity, pollution, development projects, lack of planning, and government indifference are a cause of concern for sanctuaries and national parks today. Unlike zoos, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks have the potential to offer wildlife natural and safer spaces while helping humans understand their environment better.

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Beaver is among the largest rodents in the world. There are two species of beavers: American and Eurasian.

It has thick fur, webbed feet and flattened, scale covered tails. It is a semiaquatic species, which can swim 5 miles per hour and spend 15 minutes under water without returning to the surface for air.

It uses its powerful jaws and strong teeth to fell trees and build homes and dams, which act as channels to control the ow of water in a stream or lake.

It eats leaves, roots and bark from aspens, willows, maples and poplar trees. It also eats aquatic plants.

 Beavers float small trees and branches through canals to the stream where they are building their lodge. The lodge can have several underwater entrances to keep out predators, with a large dry room inside that is used as a nursery and haven. The living area is well insulated by the lodge and surrounding water, so the temperature is considerably warmer inside the lodges than outside.

Beavers are generally beneficial to the environment. They are instrumental in creating habitats for many aquatic organisms, maintaining the water table at an appropriate level and controlling flooding and erosion, all by building dams.

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Platypuses don’t have teeth inside their bill, which makes it difficult to chew some of their favorite foods—but they have worked out a pretty ingenious solution. Along with worms, insects, shellfish, and whatever else these bottom-feeders scoop up to make a meal out of, the platypus also picks up gravel from the riverbed. The platypus packs it all into pouches in his cheek to carry it up to the surface where it munches away, using the bits of gravel as makeshift teeth to break up tougher food.

A platypus’s bill has thousands of cells that give it a sort of sixth sense, allowing them to detect the electric fields generated by all living things. It’s so sensitive that the platypus can hunt with its eyes, ears, and nose all closed, relying entirely on the bill’s electrolocation.

Platypuses (platypodes and platypi are technically also correct, but much rarer in use) aren't the only animals to forgo an acid-producing part of the gut; spiny echidnas, and nearly a quarter of living fishes all have a gullet that connects directly to their intestines.

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We know mammals do not lay eggs, and that they give birth to live young. But there are two kind of egg-laying mammals on the planet. The spiny anteaters (echidnas) and the duck-billed platypuses found in Australia are the only two mammals that lay eggs. While the platypus can live both on land and in water, the echidna is terrestrial. They are classified as mammals because they are furry, warm-blooded and produce milk for their young. Did you know their babies are called puggles?

Platypuses feed on small aquatic animals and locate their food by using their highly sensitive snouts. They often travel along the bottom of a riverbed and dig through the sediment in search of things to eat. These animals are ready to mate at 2 years of age and often have more than one partner in their lifetime. When the female prepares to lay her eggs, she goes off to a secluded den by herself to wait out the process. She will typically only lay one to three eggs.

Because spiny anteaters have no teeth, their sticky tongue is used to catch termite ants and smash them inside their mouths. Short-beaked echidnas have an excellent sense of smell, which comes in handy during breeding season when searching for potential mates. It takes between 20 and 30 days for the female to gestate and lay an egg. The hatchling will live in a small pouch hidden in its mother's fur and nurse for several weeks until it's old enough to survive without her protection.

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Whale vomit is a solid, waxy and flammable substance formed in the digestive system of sperm whales. Believed to be expelled as vomit of faeces, it can be found floating on the sea or sometimes in the abdomens of dead sperm whales. Dull grey or black in colour, it is called ambergris or grey amber. As it ages, it acquires a sweet scent which is used in perfumes. Ambergris is extremely rare and very expensive too.

Due to its high value, Ambergris has been a target for smugglers especially in coastal areas. There have been several cases where the coastline of Gujarat has been used for such smuggling. Since the sperm whale is a protected species, hunting of the whale is not allowed. However, smugglers are known to have illegally targeted the fish in order to obtain the valuable Ambergris from its stomach.

However, as per Kemp, Ambergris is produced only by an estimated one per cent of sperm whales.

Nearly 9 kg of Ambergris was seized by the Mumbai Police over the past 15 days. In the first case, 2.2 kg was seized from three men in Mulund area. The police believe they obtained Ambergris from Gujarat and were looking for sellers.

In the second case, two arrests were made from Lower Parel on Wednesday and the police found 7.7 kg of the valuable material from the duo. In both cases the police are trying to trace the owner and purchasers of Ambergris.

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It is fun to look at your pet dog running towards you in joy' the moment you come back from school. But is it correct to assume that your dog is feeling happy to receive you? Do animals experience emotions such as happiness, grief, anger, fear, empathy and contempt? Well, animal emotion is a complicated topic. Some scientists believe that they do have feelings, while others are sceptical about the whole idea.

Certain brain cells called spindle cells are responsible for thought, emotion and social behaviour in humans. Chimpanzees, dolphins and whales too have these cells in their brain. However, even animals that don't have spindle cells, such as dogs, display human-like behaviour.

In the wild, chimpanzees and whales have demonstrated 'altruism' by helping other animals without expecting a reward. Chimps, elephants, dolphins and otters have been observed to mourn their dead. Many animals have been observed to engage in 'play'.

Scientists have shown in lab tests that rats may be able to laugh. When tickled, they seem to make ultrasonic chirps that can be compared to human laughter. MRI and fMRI scans done on dogs have shown that the dog brain reacted the same way as the human brain when exposed to voices and emotionally charged sounds, such as crying and laughter. All these observations seem to suggest that animals have feelings.

However, a section of scientists say that comparing animal behaviour with human feelings is not justified. The notion that animals have feeling comes from our tendency to attribute human emotions to animals (anthropomorphism), they say. In the absence of concrete scientific evidence, the argument that animals experience emotions stands rejected.

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You may have leamt that the normal hearing range of humans is between 20 and 20,000 Hz. Meaning, we cannot hear sounds below 20 Hz or above 20,000 Hz. Which is why we're missing out on listening to elephants "sing". So, do elephants really "sing"? Come, let's find out.

If you've listened to the loud trumpet of an elephant, it may be difficult for you to believe that these huge animals actually create sounds that fall below 20 Hz. But, yes, elephants do produce these low-frequency noises, called infrasounds. It has been over four decades since it was discovered that elephants created infrasounds. Though they are low-frequency sounds, infrasounds can be heard even about 10 km away, and play "an important role in elephants complex social life". For instance, the female head of a group uses these infrasounds to guide other elephants, mothers use them to keep a check on their calves, and males-during the mating season- use it to wam other competitive males of their presence. Apparently, these infrasounds "are often accompanied by strong rumbles with slightly higher frequencies that people can hear. So, where does the question of "singing" come in?

Though infrasounds created by elephants were discovered decades ago, it was less than a decade ago that studies revealed how elephants created these sounds. To understand this, scientists used the larynx (the voice box) of a dead elephant and blew air through it. The result showed them that the principle was similar to how a human singer produced sound through the vibrating system in the larynx. This flow-induced vocal fold vibration offers a physiologically and evolutionarily efficient means to produce the very intense low-frequency sounds used in elephant long-distant communication". So, while elephants aren't really "singing", to create infrasounds, they pretty much use the same mechanism that we humans use for singing.

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The giraffe weevil is a weevil endemic to Madagascar. It derives its name from an extended neck, much like that of a giraffe. 

While giraffe weevils are indigenous to Madagascar, they are also endemic, meaning they can be found only in one location. Madagascar is an island in the Indian Ocean, directly southeast from the eastern African coast. Because it's home to many unique animals and invertebrates such as the giraffe beetle, it is a biodiversity hotspot. Despite its rarity, the giraffe weevil is not considered to be endangered or threatened by the human population or by predation from other species.

The bright red shell that covers the back of the giraffe weevil is called the elytra. It is a form of hardened forewing, although it is not formally a wing. The elytra forms a casing to protect the fragile hind wings that lay underneath, which are used for flying. To fly, the giraffe weevil, like any other flying beetle, will hold open the scarlet elytra as it lifts and then rotates its hindwings, which are made of a membranous material.

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The kakapo is a large flightless parrot native to New Zealand. It adapted to life on the ground because New Zealand has few natural terrestrial predators. They are accomplished climbers, using their wings for balance, and their beak and strong claws to pull and grip their way up and down trees.

Once found throughout New Zealand, kakapo started declining in range and abundance after the arrival of Maori. They disappeared from the North Island by about 1930, but persisted longer in the wetter parts of the South Island. The last birds died out in Fiordland in the late 1980s. A population of less than two hundred birds was discovered on Stewart Island in 1977, but this population was also declining due to cat predation. During the 1980s and 1990s the entire known population was transferred to Whenua Hou/Codfish Island off the coast of Stewart Island, Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds and Hauturu/Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf. Since then birds have been moved between Whenua Hou, Maud Island and Hauturu, as well as to and from newly predator-free Chalky and Anchor Islands in Fiordland. Kakapo now occurs only on forested islands, though they previously appeared to have inhabited a wide range of vegetation types.

Kakapo breeds in summer and autumn, but only in years of good fruit abundance. On islands in southern New Zealand they breed when the rimu trees fruit, which is once every 2 to 4 years. Elsewhere in New Zealand they probably nested when southern beech seeded, but the triggers for breeding in some northern places, including Hauturu, are unknown.

Kakapos are lek breeders. Males call from track-and-bowl systems to attract females for mating. Males play no part in incubation or chick-rearing. The nests are on or under the ground in natural cavities or under dense vegetation. The 1-4 eggs are laid in a shallow depression in the soil or rotten wood, which is repeatedly turned-over before and during incubation.

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The Koala's closest living relative, wombats are endemic to (only found in) Australia and are among the largest burrowing mammals in the world.

Wombats excavate these burrows in well-drained soils, often near creeks and gullies. They dig soil with the long claws on their forelegs and push it out with their back legs. They then roll on their sides to dig the walls.

During the breeding season chambers become nests, softened with grass and leaf-litter. Most wombats are solitary but some burrows can house a colony of ten individuals.

They can travel 3km a night to eat grass, shoots, roots and shrubs (watch some eating take place below). Like beavers, their incisors are continuously growing, so they need to gnaw on hardy material like bark to wear down their teeth.

As marsupials, female wombats care for their young in pouches on their underside. Like Bandicoots, the pouches open backwards so they don’t fill with soil while digging!

When first born, wombats weigh only one gram. The baby wombat leaves the pouch at about five months old, and can care for itself at seven months. Wombats can live up to 26 years in the wild.

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The Arabian oryx or white oryx is a medium-sized antelope with a distinct shoulder bump, long, straight horns, and a tufted tail. It is a bovid, and the smallest member of the genus Oryx, native to desert and steppe areas of the Arabian Peninsula. 

Oryx are often called gemsbok (pronounced JEMS baak) in Africa. But in Germany, gemsbok is the common name for the chamois, a type of goat-antelope! Having a scientific name as well as a common name helps people around the world know which animal they're talking about.

Oryx range in color from whitish to light brown or gray, depending on the species. They have much darker hair on the legs and in a stripe along the belly and back. Fringe-eared oryx also have black tufts of hair on their ear tips.

Oryx live in open areas of desert, semi-desert, dry grasslands, and scrublands. Some of these areas can get mighty hot! Not to worry, though. Oryx have an unusual circulation system in their head. They are able to cool the blood flowing to their brain through the capillaries in their nose as they breathe. 

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Marine iguanas are the only lizards on Earth that spends time in the ocean. They live only on the Galapagos Islands, and like many Galapagos species, they have adapted to an island lifestyle. Populations across the archipelago have been isolated from each other for so long that each island has its own subspecies.

As a result of their very small geographic area, marine iguanas are thought to be vulnerable to extinction. They have complete legal protection in the Galapagos Islands, but invasive species continue to threaten subspecies on some islands. Cats, dogs, pigs, germs, and other species brought to the islands by humans attack marine iguana eggs and juveniles. It is very difficult to eradicate invasive species from islands, so this problem is likely to continue to threaten marine iguana populations.

Marine iguanas typically spend only a few minutes underwater eating but can spend up to 30 minutes at a time submerged. Male marine iguanas can grow to 4.3 feet (1.3 m) long, while females are generally about 2 feet (0.6 m) long. Marine iguanas “sneeze out” excess salt their body collects while underwater through a nasal gland. It is believed that around 4.5 million years ago, marine iguanas evolved from land iguanas that were brought to the Galapagos and adapted to a sea-faring life in order to survive on the islands.

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