Discovery News: Born Animal

Five Ways You Can Help Sharks

Shark Week at Discovery requires months, and often years, of preparation. Each time the projects begin, I wonder how many more new Shark Weeks are left in all of our futures, given the drastic population declines of most shark species in recent decades. Maybe, like dinosaurs, sharks will take on an almost cult-like, mystical appeal if they go extinct, with the ocean predators surviving only in books and video footage, like what you can view this week on the Discovery Channel.

(Credit: Terry Goss)


That might be great for our ratings but, if sharks go extinct, ocean ecosystems would be in colossal trouble. At a coral reef where sharks were hunted to local extinction, for example, the coral died off. Without sharks around to prey upon octopus, the octopus population boomed. The extra cephalopods ate more sea urchins. The loss of sea urchins, in turn, prompted a starfish explosion, since these two species normally compete for space. The starfish consumed the coral polyps, so it was good bye coral reef that once supported a vibrant ecosystem.

Healthy Coral Ecosystem (Credit: Richard Ling)


Dying Coral Reef


Extending the scenario to humans, our fish catches could be diminished and oceans could also become more polluted, since many sharks are scavengers that, as Jean-Michel Cousteau once said, "keep the ocean clean of the sick, wounded, unhealthy." Dirty oceans could lead to food shortages, exacerbate climate change and goodness knows what else. Like environmental pollution, it's an undesired experiment with a mystery outcome.

To help get the word out about the state of sharks and conservation efforts that could turn the tide, the Discovery Channel this year has partnered with Ocean Conservancy, an organization that promotes healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems through research, education and science-based advocacy.

"Sharks are some of the most vulnerable creatures in our ocean and Shark Week provides a great venue for learning more about these amazing creatures, the important role they play in our ocean and how together we can safeguard their future," said Sonja Fordham, director of Ocean Conservancy's shark conservation program. "Sharks are in trouble around the world. Through overfishing, finning, and habitat destruction, we are far more dangerous to sharks than they are to us."

Sonja Fordham


Overexploitation as a result of targeted fishing, along with accidental capture, known as "bycatch," are the two biggest threats. Habitat degradation and pollution also pose threats not only to sharks, but also to other marine wildlife. Sharks, however, are among the most imperiled ocean dwellers.

"Today, more than ever, people have an understanding of the increasing threats to our ocean. With this understanding comes a hunger to be part of the solution and to contribute to a better future," continued Fordham, who has been authoring an excellent Discovery blog just for Shark Week.

She and her Ocean Conservancy colleagues believe that individuals can make a difference in promoting ocean health and in saving sharks. Here are five tips you can follow:

#1. Pick up your trash. The majority of trash in our ocean comes from land-based activities and careless behaviors. Ocean trash alone kills over 100,000 marine mammals each year through ingestion and entanglement.

(litter floating in an irrigation canal)


#2. Use re-usable bags for groceries and beach trips. Single use bags consume valuable resources and can be mistaken for food by animals in the ocean.

#3. Ask for sustainable seafood options at restaurants and markets. Market forces can help push managers to ensure responsible fishing. For more information, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program.

#4. Support science-based fisheries management. Contact government officials and tell them to end overfishing and shark finning in the U.S. and internationally.

Does this look good to you? It's shark fin soup. (Image credit: Arthur Hungry)


#5. Join Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup  - the world's largest network of volunteers working to improve the health of the ocean.

Sharks so often are thought of as human killers, but, as some of nature's best ocean caretakers, they are critical for our survival. Since the ocean provides much of the air that we breathe, your health at this very minute could be affected by sharks. So even if you aren't a Shark Week fan (and I hope you are) you will benefit if we can come together on this issue and make a positive difference.

Pelicans Detained On Suspicion of Public Intoxication

This week at Discovery News you can read about how a treeshrew subsists on a nature-brewed beer. It seems that nectar from naturally boozy plants has been around for at least 55 million years, suggesting that our primate and other animal ancestors weren't teetotalers. The treeshrew might even be a bit tipsy all of the time, feeling a happy buzz after it slurps up the nectar, which even froths and smells like beer. But flat out drunkenness in the wild, as for human societies, isn't desirable. Aside from the health problems it can cause, imagine what a hungry wolf or bear must have thought in the caveman days if it stumbled upon a giddy, incoherent human. You're right- an easy dinner.

A favorite story about naturally intoxicated animals has to do with California brown pelicans that went on quite a spree in Laguna Beach after they had consumed some bad red algae. Bad sort of like the stuff that Woodstock concert goers were advised to avoid back in the late 60's.

A bunch of the befuddled birds were found wandering the Southern California streets in a daze. One allegedly flew "under the influence" into a car windshield as the startled driver was trying to go down the Coast Highway. Four of the birds actually were "detained in an animal drunk tank," according to local reports. During the incident, a wildlife center received at least 16 calls from people reporting "suspicious bird behavior."

This was not an isolated incident either. In 1961, a particularly large outgrowth of the algae, which contains the culprit toxic chemical, domoic acid, led to thousands of out-of-their-minds birds flying around terrified Northern California residents in August 1961. (Domoic acid, by the way, is the same thing that causes amnesic shellfish poisoning, which killed one of my uncles, who was a fisherman. Like birds, you should definitely avoid it.)

Alfred Hitchcock, who spent a lot of time in the area, just happened to make his classic film, "The Birds," two years after the 1961 incident. So, the next time you sit up with your family or friends to watch this horror film on the late show, you can tell them that it all started with a bunch of intoxicated waterbirds that ate too much bad algae.

When Sharks Attack, You'll Want This Animal Around

"I was trying to hit him...He came back and latched onto my leg. Actually my right leg went down his throat and he was, I suppose, trying to pull my leg off...I was kicking him in the face with my left leg."

"You can't do much to a 15-foot shark."

Surfer Todd Endris said the above during an interview on CBS's Early Show this morning. He and other shark attack victims will be featured on Discovery's Shark Week, running through next Sunday.

Shark expert Andy Dehart of the National Aquarium, in addition to advising people not to swim at dawn and dusk, said victims in the throes of an attack could attempt to "pound" the shark on the nose, "punch it in the eyes" or bash it in the gills. These shark body areas are very sensitive, so blows to these spots do more damage.

Better yet, be on the lookout for a certain marine mammal that might just save your life. Endris explains in the below. For more info, I also recommend checking out his web site.

Shark Week!

Set the Tivo, the DVR, the VCR or just plain set yourself on your favorite TV-viewing spot, because Shark Week is coming at you starting Sunday. It kicks off with a special episode of MythBusters at 9PM Eastern time. I had the pleasure of filming Jamie and Adam last year or so for another project and can tell you that they are just as you'd expect them to be in person- smart as all get out, professional, rock solid on camera and down to earth. You just point the camera and let them go. The same is true for sharks, except with the MythBusters, you don't have to worry that they'll eat you during the filming.

Today at Born Animal I'd like to share with you three brief shark clips that have really stuck with me over the months.

The first is extremely rare footage of a frill shark, a deep water species that has changed little over thousands of years of evolution. Cold water near the sea floor keeps its metabolism and body changes slow and steady. Sadly, this clip was taken just minutes before the individual died, but it's a rare chance to glimpse such a primitive-looking shark.

The second is the trailer for the movie documentary Sharkwater. I interviewed its star and creator, Rob Stewart, just before the U.S. release. Stewart's energy and passion for his work were unmistakable. It's a beautifully shot film, as you can see even from this short preview.

Finally, one of my favorite Shark Week moments has to be this mesmerizing footage of shark expert Michael Rutzen hypnotizing a great white. It's a very quiet moment, but so telling about the connections we can have with other species, not to mention each other. You'll learn more about human trances here next week.

Shark Poachers Nailed

This week, authorities in Mozambique seized and confiscated an unlicensed vessel from Namibia that was illegally fishing for sharks off the southeastern coast of Africa. Although we often hear about ocean poachers, what was found on the vessel makes it easy to understand why shark populations worldwide are nearly all threatened, with some on the brink of extinction.

The Namibian ship, called the Antillas Reefer, had this as its cargo:

43 tons of sharks

4 tons of shark fins

1.8 tons of shark tails

11.3 tons of shark liver

20 tons of shark oil

The value of the catch?
Five million dollars.

The Antillas Reefer almost got away with the crime. A Mozambique company, Sabcal Pescas, first brought the vessel into the region on the pretense of tuna fishing. The Fisheries Ministry there was supposed to issue it a license for this activity but, even before any gear was inspected, the Antillas Reefer went out hunting for sharks—with banned gear. If it weren't for some watchful legit Mozambican fishermen, who spotted the ship, it would still be out in the water hauling up more sharks.

The company that owned the illegal vessel was fined $4.5 million, in addition to the authorities seizing and confiscating the ship.

You can see the problem. One kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of shark anything is worth about $700. That is 70 times the value of the same amount of tuna.  So long as there is high public demand for shark fin soup, shark meat, shark teeth souvenirs, shark skin and other shark products, the poaching will continue.

At least authorities seem to be stepping up their efforts. Conservation groups have also been following fishermen that practice shark finning. The below rare footage shows the carnage these ships often leave behind on the ocean floor.



Poaching is just one threat facing sharks now. As Shark Week gets underway at the Discovery Channel, please tune in here again to learn what you can do to help ensure that sharks have a future.

Virtual North Dakota Vacation

"Endless prairie...where the wind blows so high that you have to walk sideways to keep from flying. I'm going to leave this endless prairie, or I'm going to die from trying."- traditional American folk song

The Hell Creek Formation. The Badlands. Cannon Ball. Leech Lake.
The names alone reveal the daunting challenges early travelers to North Dakota faced. But something about the state's majestic landscape attracted them, and wildlife, over the years. In terms of dinosaur occupation, we're talking over millions of years.

North Dakota was once packed with dinosaurs such as T. rex

and Allosaurus

60 million years ago the Cannonball Sea partly covered the entire state. The environment resembled what Florida's swamplands are like today. 50-foot-long crocodiles were not uncommon. They co-existed with giant predatory birds, ancient relatives to modern sharks, and all sorts of marine creatures, like crabs, lobsters, snails and clams.

Today the seaway is long gone and North Dakota is part of the Great Plains in the U.S. The landscape also includes grassy plateaus, rolling hills and mountains. It's where the antelope and buffaloes now roam, along with countless other animals.

My friend and colleague Sarah Goforth recently traveled to the state with her friend Tom. Credit goes to her for the images in the below virtual North Dakota vacation slideshow (with a few South Dakota pics included for good measure). If free-roaming animals, fresh air, blue skies and open spaces call to you, please take time to watch and, better yet, visit the state yourself at some point. It's one of America's great treasures.

Watch An Ultrasonic Frog Tune Its Ears

If you were here a few weeks ago, you probably read about how birds are having a hard time singing over the din of traffic. Some are evolving coping mechanisms, like louder tweets, so they can communicate even when cars are honking and rushing by. But some can't change their tunes quickly and are being forced to vacate urban areas.

Nature itself produces a lot of noise, like the sound of rushing water.

Since this noise is ongoing and has occurred over long periods of time, creatures living in such habitats almost always evolve some means of communicating over the background sounds. The torrent frog, which lives near fast-flowing bodies of water in two areas of China, took a unique approach. It went ultrasonic.

(Credit: Albert S. Feng, University of Illinois)

Feng and his team determined that the frog, Odorrana tormota, sings like a bird either in audible sounds or in an ultrasonic frequency that we humans cannot detect without special equipment. To hear this wide array of sounds, the frog can tune its ears, like we tune in and out radio channels. The mechanics involve opening and closing Eustachian tubes, which normally couple the frog's right and left ears.

You can read the full story at this Discovery News page.

 

Here you can see footage of O. tormota opening and closing its Eustachian tubes when listening and calling at night, the time when it is most active. In this movie, the researchers directed a light beam under the frog's jaw to illuminate the inside of its mouth. The small circles of light on the side of the frog's head that brighten and dim show the opening and closing of the tubes.

Movie courtesy of the National Academies of Science, PNAS (2008)

Another frog species and a bird can also hear and produce ultrasound but, so far, this ability has only been detected in that handful of species. In addition to revealing more about how nature solves its own problems, the information is being used to devise intelligent hearing aids that spatially separate sounds and process them like the human brain does. So when you're old and your hearing is shot from too many concerts and listening to your mp3 player too loudly (which I'm guilty of) then you'll want this guy in your corner.

Photo of Albert Feng, taken by L. Brian Stauffer, U. of I. News Bureau

A Tribute to Animal Rights Activist Dona Spring

The longest serving U.S. Green Party member in public office, Dona Spring, recently passed away just days after she publicly spoke out against a plan to cut down a stand of old growth trees— Memorial Grove in Berkeley, California. I happened to be at that event, and can report that she put aside agonizing pain to bravely fight for this cause, and so many others that she believed in. She was a tireless champion for animal rights and the environment, despite the fact that debilitating arthritis left her a quadriplegic towards the end of her much too short life. Countless people and other animals benefited from her work.

Among her many accomplishments:

• She campaigned nationally against what she referred to as the "frivolous" use of animals for experimental purposes.

• She helped to pass a bond to establish a state of the art, no-kill animal shelter.

• Her leadership as a city council member led to reductions in the use and disposal of chemical toxins, including reducing the flow of heavy metals into storm drains.

• She improved recycling programs, leading to better curbside service, and she educated the public about reducing waste, lessening reliance on fossil fuels and eating lower on the food chain.

• Spring believed that trees, plants and wildlife add to our quality of life, so she worked hard to ensure city development programs would incorporate related matters.

Words cannot adequately convey how much she sacrificed to make her vision of a better world a reality for us. You can catch just a glimpse of this by watching her last major public speech here. The atmosphere at that event was quite tense, with police surrounding the site as protesters and officials exchanged heated words.

I also invite you to watch the below short film about her life. So many of us put off volunteering or working on community projects because of various good excuses- time, money, health and so on. But Dona Spring should inspire all of us to follow our hearts and our deepest desires by doing what we can with what each of us has to offer. She will be greatly missed.

Listen to Fish Growl, Grunt and Hum- Amazing Pics Too

I've often heard people say that they "won't eat anything with a face," and yet they still consume fish, the assumption being that only "red meat" animals have faces.

One photograph might put that argument to rest. (Please click on the photo, or any of the images here, for an even bigger view.)

Cornell's Margaret Marchaterre took that unbelievable head shot of a male Gulf toadfish. She also took these photos:

(midshipman fish larvae)

(adult male midshipman)

Males of both of these teleost fishes vocalize to attract females to their nest. Here's the love call of a male midshipman. As the researchers say, to human ears it sounds more like a long-winded foghorn than a ballad, but female midshipman fish find it most alluring.

Midshipman fish also growl and grunt. Take a listen.

Andrew Bass of Cornell led the project, which investigated the very audible methods of communication in both toadfish and the midshipman. They determined that vocal muscles in the fish connect to clusters of neurons in the fish's brains and spinal cords.

“Fish have all the same parts of the brain that you do,” he said, adding that the way our brains work is also similar. Just as we have neurons that coordinate when our larynx and tongue change shape to produce words, toadfish and midshipman orchestrate the movement of muscles attached to their swim bladder to produce grunts and hums.

A paper on this topic is featured in the latest Science journal. It represents years of research and deep discussions at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts.

"There’s reason to suggest that the use of sound in social communication is widespread among fishes,” concluded Bass. "The kind of work we’re doing contributes to answering questions as to why these animals are so successful. We’re only touching the tip of the iceberg here.”

(midshipman nest, near my home in Northern CA, showing fertilized eggs and larvae; credit again goes to Margaret Marchaterre)

Siamangs Singing

My home is near a zoo and nearly every morning I awaken to three sounds: my ancient cats screaming, wild turkeys gobbling and something very much like this:

That's what you might call a Siamang gibbon family song. "Suma" and "Siam" sing a duet in that clip, with their twins chiming in every so often in the background. Thanks to Tobias Riede for sharing the recording, the below images and the video, which come from Thomas Geissmann's Gibbon Research Lab.  (I encourage you to check out the lab web site, which is one of the best of its kind that I've seen and features anything and everything about gibbons.)
Dr. Riede is a voice and speech expert. You can read about his latest findings by going right here.

We humans take for granted that we have incredible control over our voices. It's a very handy skill that enables us to communicate without attracting the attention of others and/or being overheard. In the jungle, non-human great apes that find something good to eat can't just whisper to their relatives, "Pssst. The yummy bananas are over there." They instead must usually communicate over long distances and that includes some very loud vocalizing that hungry unwanteds, including members of other species, can snoop on.

Dr. Riede and his team discovered that we retain probable tiny vestiges of air sacs in our voice box that, in much larger versions, enable our primate ancestors to crank up their vocal volume. (Live Science a few months back ran a fun piece on the Top 10 Useless Limbs and Other Vestigial Organs.) It's likely that we lost amplification skills during our evolution in favor of quieter, more controlled speech. I have to admit, though, that at times I'd love to sound like the below Siamang family. In addition to being loud, their calls are incredibly haunting and melodic. Better than coffee to wake anyone up in the morning.