Flora & Fauna: Masked bandits evolve; 2-purpose turkeys; foraging stats; whales' aging secrets; birds can help farmers

Perhaps one day, urban raccoons will be pets.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Racoons are masked, cute, and affectionately known as "trash pandas," and they are proving to have a real knack for evolving to live alongside humans, reports Axios. "The same evolutionary forces that turned wolves into domesticated dogs over thousands of years may now be reshaping urban raccoons, recent studies suggest." Marcie Logsdon, who works closely with wildlife rehabbers, told Axios, "Raccoons have adapted incredibly well to our presence. . . [They are] bold enough to raid garbage cans but polite enough" to avoid altercations with people.

An agrivoltaic 'trial flock' enjoys solar panel shade.
(Photo by Evan Carpenter, Offrange)

These turkeys have it made in the shade as they peck and strut under solar panels, unwittingly being prepared as a holiday dinner while also participating in a "dual-use agrivoltaic system," reports Jake Zajkowski for Offrange. Evan Carpenter, who is raising the "trial flock," will share bird and energy outcomes with "project collaborators United Agrivoltaics and Cornell University, to study the feasibility and business model of Carpenter’s project to scale dual-use income land."

In the Mid-Atlantic forests of the U.S., researchers Amy Wrobleski and Eric Burkhart explored regional fungi foraging and shared some of their findings with The Conversation. "We learned that harvesters use the mushrooms primarily for food and medicinal purposes. . . . Over 800 harvesters reported that, collectively, they foraged 160 species of wild mushrooms. . . . Morels and chicken of the woods were the two most popular. . . .Other popular species were hen of the woods, oysters, lion’s mane, black trumpet, honey mushroom, turkey tail, bolete, reishi, puffball, chaga, shrimp of the woods and Dryad’s saddle." Mid-Atlantic fungi can be found here. 

Bowhead whale and calf (NOAA Fisheries photo)

At full-grown, a bowhead whale can weigh 88 tons, which is roughly the weight of 15 elephants. But that's not the only outrageous bowhead fact -- the whale can live to be 268 years old. "Some whales caught in the late 1900s had old harpoon points lodged in their blubber that dated to the mid-1800s," reports Carl Zimmer of The New York Times. "A study published in the journal Nature offers a clue to how the animals manage to live so long: They are extraordinarily good at fixing damaged DNA."

K4 Ranches photo

When it comes to raising cattle, a horse is a rancher's best friend. "Using horses to check and gather cattle is typically the only option with rugged terrain," reports Maddy Rohr for Drovers. Diamond A Ranch, a division of K4 Ranch in Arizona, employs a large crew with seasonal cowboys and eight camps with full-time cowboys." Sarah Kieckhefer of K4 told Rohr, "A good horse can go where a pickup, ATV or side-by-side can’t. Horses can cover long distances and a horse allows you to move quietly, ease cattle along and reduce stress, which leads to fewer wrecks and better weight retention.”

Photo by Mike Wagner via Reasons to be Cheerful

American rice grower Mike Wagner welcomes thousands of migratory ducks, geese and shorebirds that "arrive on his farmland after harvest every autumn," writes Elizabeth Hewitt for Reasons to be Cheerful. "Over winter and early spring, the birds clean up leftovers from the growing season. Thousands of webbed feet mix up soil and water, leaving the fields ready for planting when they depart in the spring. And their droppings are so rich that Wagner has cut how much synthetic fertilizer he needs for his crop by more than a third."  

Flora & Fauna: Bald eagle vs. Canadian goose; ping! It's a whale; a woolly devil; feathered roommates; bird hitchhikers

A Canada goose and a bald eagle battled in Burlington, Ont.
The goose survived. (Photo by Mervyn Sequiera via CBC)

A bald eagle swooped down on a Canadian goose that looked like an easy meal. A battle ensued. "Mervyn Sequeira — who watched and photographed a 20-minute battle between the two birds — the goose held its own," reports Aura Carreño Rosas of CBC News. "Sequeira and his family witnessed a rare event — a fight between the national bird of the U.S. and the iconic Canadian animal. Sequeira told Rosas, "When we thought that it was really over for the goose, strangely, the bald eagle just gave up and left."

A marine AI tool is doing something humans can't do. "This is WhaleSpotter, an artificial intelligence-powered whale detection system that aims to transmit real-time alerts to ships to prevent them from colliding with whales — a threat that leads to the injury or death of thousands of whales each year," reports Ashley Braun of bioGraphic. "While the AI system is designed to filter out false alarms — such as signals from birds, breaking waves, and boats—the aim is for ship captains to receive zero false alerts, so that every ping truly requires their attention."

The first photo of the woolly devil made a stir among
botanists. (Photo by Deb Manley via Atlas Obscura)

Big Bend National Park has bragging rights to a "devilish" discovery. "This tiny, fuzzy sunflower relative has been hiding in plain sight — it represents the first new genus identified in a U.S. national park in nearly 50 years," reports Andrew Coletti of Atlas Obscura. "The Big Bend species has been given the scientific name Ovicula biradiata. Informally, it’s become known as 'the woolly devil,' for its fur and the 'devil horn'-like rays protruding from its flowers."

Maple seeds are made to get around -- even if that means flying in the rain. "When wind or other disturbances detach winged maple seeds called samaras from their parent tree, they spin through the air – and can even spin when it’s raining," reports Andrew Dickerson for The Conversation. "The samaras’ spinning movement, called autorotation, keeps them in the air for longer so they travel farther. My colleagues and I filmed raindrops as they crashed into autorotating samaras. The samaras shed drops by shattering them, flinging the drops off, or rolling out of the way – like they’re turning away from a punch."

Spike is a 'small but mighty' Eastern Screech Owl.
(Fontenelle Forest photo via M. Stewart)

It's hard to match the curious cuteness of screech owls -- especially when they have heart-tugging stories. Meet Spike and George. "Spike was found trapped in a train car, during which he sustained brain damage that made it impossible for him to survive in the wild. But since finding his new home at Fontenelle Forest, one of Nebraska's oldest conservation organizations, Spike has been thriving," reports Sydney Wingfield for Martha Stewart magazine. "Spike is an excellent roommate to George, another owl who arrived at the conservation 12 years ago after his nest tree was mistakenly cut down. While George is notorious for being a picky roommate, he and Spike have proven to be a perfect match."

Flower mites hitch rides on hummingbirds. (Pixabay public domain photo via Physics.org)

Hummingbirds may seem like an odd choice for a taxi, but tiny bugs can hop on for a ride. "Flower mites spend their lives slurping nectar and nibbling pollen in flowers throughout the tropics. To travel from one blossom to another, these tiny, eight-legged creatures hitch rides on the beaks of hummingbirds, taking shelter in the birds’ nostrils during flight," reports Douglas Main of The New York Times. "When a speedy hummingbird arrives at a flower to drink nectar, mites run toward its beak to get onboard before eventually transferring to another blossom." The mini stowaways are blind and can't jump. Main explains how they "hummingbird hitchhike" here.

Flora & Fauna: World's oldest whale; all about potatoes; farming extracted land; everlasting lice; why play?

The humpback whale Old Timer in Frederick Sound in southeast Alaska.
(Photo by Adam Pack, NOAA Research Permit 26953 via NYT)

Sometimes seeing an old friend can warm the heart and encourage the spirit. "When Adam A. Pack, a marine mammal researcher, was photographing whales in Alaska’s Frederick Sound this July, he instantly recognized the flukes of an old friend," writes Emily Anthes of The New York Times. "The tail — mostly black, with a wash of white speckles near the edge — belongs to a whale named Old Timer. First spotted in 1972, Old Timer is now a male of at least 53 years, making him “the oldest known humpback whale in the world. . . The last time he had seen the whale, in 2015, was in the middle of a record-breaking, yearslong heat wave. . ."

Where would this country be without potatoes? It's a loaded question. Fluffed, whipped, baked, fried, scalloped, mashed, au gratin. . . Americans do love their taters. But U.S. scientists said, "It's not enough. . . Potatoes deserve more!" Jacob Bunge and Victor Stefanescu of The Wall Street Journal report, "Agriculture companies are applying cutting-edge genetic technology to the dusty brown tubers, aiming to grow bigger piles of spuds that could make for healthier potato chips and french fries. . .while grappling with storage and shelf life."

Ashford Farm has been cultivating lavender for five
years. (Photo by K. Thacker, Ambrook Research)

Not long ago, a coal mine sat on a blown-off mountaintop in West Virginia. The mine extracted that land's wealth and left it barren, but that is not the story's end. "The prospect of putting a farm on a former coal site is highly ambitious and pretty rare — at least in the mountainous Central Appalachian Coal Basin," report Even Andrew and Kristian Thacker of Ambrook Research. "Lavender, however, is a good match for mined terrain because it’s a relatively low-maintenance crop that thrives in dry, rocky soils. . . . But growing something, especially on reclaimed mine land, is a significant challenge."

What's grosser than gross? Lice. "We are in peak lice season, and the lice seem to arrive, always, at the moment when we are least equipped to deal with them. If you’ve endured them even once, odds are you still have at least a touch of lingering paranoia and phantom itching," reports Caitlin Gibson of The Washington Post. "They were there when Hannibal and his army crossed the Alps. They were there when both World Wars were fought. Now it is 2024, and we have Mars rovers and artificial intelligence and, still, lice. We can’t change the reality of them. Should we try to change the way we think about them?"

Like everything Mother Nature imbues, play has purpose.
(Adobe Stock photo)

It's the Puppy Bowl! The Kitten Bowl! The Turtle Bowl. OK. May there's no turtle bowl -- yet. But humans do love to watch animals play. Why? As David Toomey writes for The Conversation, "Play has a role in Darwin’s theory of natural selection. As I explain in my new book, Kingdom of Play: What Ball-bouncing Octopuses, Belly-flopping Monkeys, and Mud-sliding Elephants Reveal about Life Itself, there are many similarities – so many that if you could distill the processes of natural selection into a single behavior, that behavior would be play, Animals forage and hunt in specific ways that don’t typically change. But an animal at play is far more likely to innovate – and some of its innovations may in time be adapted into new ways to forage and hunt."

While the Florida Everglades are home to an abundance of animal diversity, including 360 different species of birds and countless insect species, Burmese pythons are not a welcome addition. The state has battled to control the invasive, nonnative snake's spread with multiple approaches, including capture and kill contests. The state just wrapped up its annual Florida Python Challenge "during which time participants caught and killed the nonvenomous constrictors, which feed on the state's native fauna," reports Joe Hernandez of NPR. Florida offers more opportunities to remove pythons year-round.