Flora and fauna: Shoes for a chicken; cats can eat more than 2,000 species; the decline of snowbirds

Nubz in his reindeer slippers
(Photo by Meesh Davignon via WP)

A tiny chicken missing some toes inspired fans to send him over 60 pairs of chicken shoes. The chicken, lovingly named Nubz, began his shoe journey with "a tiny pair of dog slippers decorated with reindeer" intended for a Chihuahua, reports Cathy Free of The Washington Post. Nubz's owner, Meesh Davignon, created a TikTok page and posted a "video she'd taken of him learning to walk in his reindeer slippers. . . . People loved it, and some wanted to add to Nubz's shoe wardrobe and give him more variety."

As your kitty heads outdoors, they could be hunting any number of creatures to call dinner. "Now, researchers have documented the breadth of cats' global buffet. A study published in the journal Nature Communications found that free-ranging domestic cats (including feral ones) eat more than 2,000 species, raising renewed concerns about the ecological fallout," reports Catrin Einhorn of The New York Times. "It's not the cats' fault they're bad for wildlife. Cats are carnivores. Their talent for preying on rodents is a big reason their ancestors and ours started hanging around together in the first place."

Juncos thrive in the cold.
(Photo by P. Trail via WTR)

National bird populations have declined; snowbirds such as the chill-loving junco are no exception. "Juncos are among the West's most familiar birds, reliable companions on summer hikes and winter days, writes Pepper Trail for Writer on the Range. "Juncos are also in sharp decline. According to the Breeding Bird Survey, a decades-long monitoring study of the nation's birds, junco populations are down by 42% since the surveys began in the late 1960s. . . . But here is the peculiar part: There is no obvious reason for this loss of millions of birds. What seems to be killing juncos is simply . . . everything."

"Have you ever wanted a strawberry so shiny and red that your field looks like it's full of Christmas lights? OK, maybe you haven't thought about it in those terms, but a new, shiny strawberry variety promises to kick off your season with traits growers want," reports Philip Gruber of Lancaster Farming. Kim Lewers, a strawberry research plant geneticist at the USDA's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, told Gruber, "It was like the Holy Grail was a big, early, sweet strawberry, right? So now I finally have one." Meet the "Lumina" strawberry.

Judging by appearances, it doesn't look like oysters are extraordinarily talented, but looks can be deceiving. "Oysters stabilize shorelines, trap carbon-rich sediment, and help marshes grow," reports Emily Jones for Grist. "And researchers are now studying how creating new oyster reefs could help fight climate change by sequestering carbon."

Blue pigment adds an icy hue to a poplar branch's cellular
structure. (Photo by Robert Berdan, National Geographic)

What do plants look like from the inside? Photographer Robert Berdan aimed to find out: "With his camera-mounted microscope, Berdan zooms in to the cellular level to capture the hidden beauty of poplars, pine cones, and dandelions," reports Annie Roth of National Geographic. "His technique, known as photomicrography, involves photographing dyed specimens under a microscope fitted with a DSLR camera."