After eating "cat shit", they turned into attacking wolves | Nature Trumpet

Welcome to the 23rd issue of the Nature Trumpet column. In the past half month, we have collected the following natural news and research worth noting:

1) After being infected with Toxoplasma gondii, wolves turn into "attack wolves"

2) Cows now have smartwatches

3) Great Gray Owl: The big face plate is very useful!

4) 30 kg of goldfish cannot be stewed in one pot

5) Sea Otter Surrogate Mother Program is a Great Success

6) Humans lose the territorial battle with Canada geese

Attack of the Wolf

After being infected with a mind-controlling parasite, the wolf turns into Attack Wolf!

Recently, scientists discovered that among more than 200 wolves in Yellowstone Park, those infected with Toxoplasma gondii were more likely than those who were not infected to engage in risky behaviors , such as rising up as the leader of the tribe or simply abandoning their families and establishing a new tribe.

Wolf | USFWS Endangered Species / Wikimedia Commons

Although Toxoplasma can only reproduce sexually in cats, it can survive in any warm-blooded host . Wolves may have been infected with Toxoplasma by wandering into mountain lion territory or by eating feline feces.

Wolves are not the only ones who become braver after being infected with Toxoplasma. People have previously found that mice infected with Toxoplasma produce more testosterone and are no longer afraid of cats; hyenas infected with Toxoplasma even dare to fight African lions; chimpanzees infected with Toxoplasma have no fear of their natural enemy, leopards. As for humans infected with Toxoplasma, they are more likely to start a business... (It's true, someone did this study 👉 "People infected with Toxoplasma are more likely to start a business, and there are 2 billion infected people worldwide!")

Toxoplasma gondii life cycle | Ilovericexoxo / Wikimedia Commons

However, the infection can also bring dangers to wolves . Pregnant wolves infected with Toxoplasma may suffer miscarriages; infected wolves are more aggressive in fighting and are more vulnerable. If infected wolves fearlessly lead the entire pack into the territory of mountain lions, they may also be infected en masse.

Wearable devices for cows

Cows now have smartwatches!

Researchers including Zhang Zutao from Southwest Jiaotong University in China recently designed a wearable smart device for cows that can be worn on their ankles and necks. The unique feature of this device is that through the sensor device on the device, the kinetic energy generated by all the cows' daily actions can be converted into electrical energy to power the device.

Cows wearing smart watches | References [2]

Using smart technology to monitor the health, fertility and environmental conditions of dairy cows can help prevent disease and improve ranch efficiency. However, the industry's emissions are already high, and smart monitoring technology inevitably increases the energy burden - and now this self-sufficient smart device solves this contradiction!

The kinetic energy harvester in the device contains a motion enhancement mechanism that uses magnets and pendulums to amplify the tiny movements of cows in their daily lives. The sensor can collect a large amount of kinetic energy from the cows walking, running, and even neck movements, and store the energy in lithium batteries.

Try it on humans | References [2]

The researchers also tested the smart device on humans and found that a light jog could provide enough energy for the device's temperature measurement function . In the near future, such technology could be applied in a variety of fields, including sports detection and healthcare.

Big face plate

In nature, big faces are not only not ugly, but also very useful!

The Great Gray Owl has the largest face plate of any bird , making it the king of snow hunting. It can catch voles hiding under 50 cm of snow, and can penetrate hardened snow strong enough to bear the weight of a human.

Great Grey Owl's Big Face Plate | James Duncan

But how can hunting ability be related to face size? This is because they use their faces as radars - the larger the face, the more sensitive it is to low-frequency sounds. Snow absorbs sound, and all high-frequency sounds (such as the sharp sounds of voles) disappear behind a 50-centimeter layer of snow; but the low-frequency sounds of voles digging and chewing under the snow will still reach the facial radar of the Great Grey Owl.

A Great Grey Owl dives into a hole in the snow after hunting | Yellowstone National Park

The refraction of sound by the snow layer can also create a "mirage" effect, leading to errors in the positioning of targets under the snow; however, if you stay directly above the target, you can reduce the impact of sound refraction. This has allowed the Great Grey Owl to develop a unique hunting process - when owls usually catch prey, they will focus on the target and then rush over to attack; but when the Great Grey Owl hunts in the snow, it will fly above the prey and hover, then dive down.

Despite their large faces, Great Gray Owls are one of the quietest species when flying , and can dodge the noise of their flight while they hover and listen for prey.

Giant goldfish

Have you ever seen a giant goldfish weighing 60 kilograms ?

In the blue water lake in northeastern France, British Andy Hackett caught this giant goldfish. It was not easy to catch it - Andy spent 25 minutes "tug of war" with the big goldfish before he finally won and dragged it to the shore.

Andy and his 30kg goldfish | Bluewater Lakes / Facebook

The nickname of the big goldfish is "Carrot". It was released into the lake 20 years ago . After so many years of growth, it has become the "elder among fish". Holding this unprecedented huge catch, Andy received advice from others: "You need a bigger bowl."

Goldfish kept as ornamental fish in water tanks are easy to die; but in the wild, goldfish have super vitality - they can live for 25 years , and even in an environment without any oxygen, they can live for 5 months.

Goldfish in a fish tank | Souravgg8 / Wikimedia Commons

The tenacious vitality of goldfish can sometimes bring disaster to the ecosystem. Pet goldfish are often released into wild ponds and lakes at will. As invasive species, they reproduce wildly, leaving native species with nowhere to go. At the same time, they are also rampant, disturbing the sediment at the bottom of the water, uprooting plants, and deteriorating the water quality. In 2020, managers in a county in the United States removed as many as 50,000 goldfish from local waters.

Therefore, for the sake of the health of the water, it is better to let the goldfish stay in the small tank at home!

Sea otter release

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the United States, the sea otter rehabilitation program that has lasted for more than 30 years has finally achieved great success - the only 50 sea otters left on the Big Sur coast due to overhunting have increased to about 3,000 !

Since 1984, the aquarium staff has tried their best to raise the rescued orphans. At first, they personally spent several hours a day combing the sea otters' hair and taking them swimming. However, the staff could not teach the sea otters how to forage and survive, so the released sea otters could not adapt to life in the wild . Moreover, the sea otters raised by humans like to get close to people and will approach tourists in the wild, which is a risk to both people and sea otters.

Sea otter playing with toys | Monterey Bay Aquarium

In 2002, the aquarium staff came up with a new idea - to find surrogate mothers for the baby sea otters . They selected some adult female sea otters to see if they were willing to take care of the babies. The loving female sea otters swam and dived with the baby sea otters every day, and taught them how to open clams and eat crabs. The resident surrogate mother "Toola" has lived in the aquarium for more than ten years and raised 13 baby sea otters by hand.

Baby sea otter and surrogate mother | Monterey Bay Aquarium

When humans raised sea otters, their survival rate after release was only 27%, but the surrogate mother strategy increased that rate to 71% . It not only led to a growing number of sea otters, but after the sea otters were reintroduced to the Monterey Bay estuary, the health of the waterway also improved , and eelgrass meadows reappeared. Meadows are habitats for young fish, which means more species will have a better living environment.

Canada Goose

In the battle to defend territory, Canada geese beat humans !

Canada geese are complete urban bullies. They are brave and aggressive. Not only do they intimidate pedestrians, they also throw feces everywhere, causing great annoyance to people.

Canada Goose | Ryan Hodnett / Wikimedia Commons

Recently, scientists in Chicago are ready to declare war on Canada geese - they have launched a "harassment goose" plan to drive away these bullies. Of course, their purpose is not to harm the geese, but to make them migrate to warmer places, which will allow the geese to better spend the winter and save the people in the city who are harassed by geese.

The research team went to the park together every day and kept knocking on the wooden board, hoping to annoy the geese and make them leave. They found that if there were resources that the geese wanted, such as food and water, the geese would temporarily leave when they were harassed, but they would either move to other places in the same park or just hide on nearby rooftops, stations and sports fields, and fly back within an hour .

Researcher and a collared Canada goose | Ryan Askren

The researchers also put collars on the geese to study the effects of harassment on them, and the results were equally not good - although the harassed geese spent more time flying and guarding their surroundings, they also spent more time foraging and resting. In other words, the harassment that humans have gone to great lengths to achieve ultimately has no effect on the geese .

The researchers' plan failed, but they thought of another possibility: harassing the geese on cold and snowy days . At that time, resources were scarce, and the geese were already under great pressure. Add to that the harassment, and they might fly away. But this method also had an obstacle to implementation - when the weather was bad, no one was willing to go out and chase the geese.

Finally, a piece of news:

On December 5, 2,500 seals were found mysteriously dead on the Russian coast.

There is no indication that they were killed or caught in fishing nets, they most likely died of natural causes. We are still awaiting the results of the laboratory studies.

Incident scene | AP

References

[1] https://www.livescience.com/mind-controlled-wolves-toxoplasma-gondii

[2] https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(22)01720-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2589004222017205%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

[3] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.11644.

[4] https://www.livescience.com/man-catches-enormous-goldfish-in-france

[5] https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5636/3/4/47

[6] https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wsb.1384

Author: Cat Tun

Editor: Mai Mai

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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