Who is the fattest bear this year? It's this one, one bear is worth two bears! | Nature Trumpet

Welcome to the 19th issue of the Nature Trumpet column. In the past half month, we have collected these fun and interesting natural news and research:

1) In the decisive Fat Bear Week, a 1,270-pound brown bear won the championship!

2) The magical use of human hair dye: participating in sea lion protection

3) Beer scraps can also be used to grow mushrooms

4) Who wins a fight between a killer whale and a humpback whale?

5) Replace LED street lights to protect insects

6) Crude oil, which is thinner than hair, can damage seabird feathers

The annual Fat Bear Week

Recently, this brown bear named "747" won the Fat Bear Week competition and became the "fattest bear" this year!

That's me! (This is a photo from September this year) | C. Rohdenburg

The annual Fat Bear Week Challenge has just concluded in Katmai National Park in the United States. Netizens from all over the world voted for the fattest bear by watching the live broadcasts and photos of the bears. This year, the organizers received a total of about 1.03 million votes, and "747" is the champion bear voted by netizens. Last year's champion bear was Otis.

This is not the first time that "747" has won the championship. It is also the champion of the 2020 challenge. Moreover, "747" is definitely one of the fattest bears in the world. The average adult male brown bear weighs 500 to 800 kilograms, but "747" weighs about 1,270 kilograms, which can be said to be one bear against two bears. In the spring and summer of each year, the weight of bears after hibernation will generally "shrink" greatly, but even in early summer, 747 maintains a weight that exceeds that of other bears.

The 747 in June this year is thinner, but not that thin | C. Rohdenburg

In order to win this year's competition, "747" has been working hard to gain weight - since the end of June, it has been fishing in the Brooks River almost every day. Its huge size alone can scare away most brown bears and easily occupy the best fishing spots . "747"'s size advantage, coupled with superb fishing skills, has successfully put on a lot of autumn fat.

When autumn ends, brown bears, with their bodies covered with fat and their stomachs filled with salmon, will happily begin their 4-5 month long hibernation.

Sea lions also dye their hair

Recently, scientists discovered that human hair dye can be very useful in sea lion conservation efforts.

In Australia, scientists applied hair dye to the backs of sea lions as a temporary mark. In the two months after dyeing, scientists can identify each sea lion based on the mark and detect how often they move between islands. Applying human hair dye does not require piercing the animal's skin and is safe and harmless to sea lions . In many areas, seals and sea lions have used this unique marking method.

Sea lions living in Australia | Peterdownunder / Wikimedia Commons

Applying hair dye to sea lions is also very simple. Researchers can be the sea lions' teacher Tony. They will use a long pole with a number mark made of foam material on the top, and then apply hair dye on the number, so that the mark can be pressed on the back or side of the sea lion from a distance. This method can keep the distance between people and sea lions and minimize the interference with sea lions.

Bring a pole and strike when they are least expecting it! | Su.fraser / Wikimedia Commons

In the coming months, scientists will collect data through hair dye tagging and satellite tracking to study the sea lions' behavior, numbers and movement patterns , information that will benefit their conservation.

Beer scraps and mushrooms

In Belgium, a country famous for its beer, a company is growing mushrooms using beer scraps .

The company grew mushrooms in an abandoned slaughterhouse. They collected spent grains from the beer-making process, as well as discarded baguettes and dry bread, stuffed them into a freezer, and used them as a substrate for growing mushrooms. They have now grown seven common Asian mushroom varieties , including shiitake mushrooms and maitake mushrooms.

Growing mushrooms with beer scraps | References [3]

In order to grow mushrooms for a long time, they have reached a cooperation with a Belgian beer manufacturer to recycle the leftovers from beer making. They have also made an appointment with several bread and sandwich chains to collect the leftover bread every day. This will bring a continuous supply of raw materials, and they can receive 5 tons of waste grains and 18 tons of bread every year, realizing a successful circular economy .

Using grains and bread, the company can grow 8 to 10 tons of mushrooms per week. These mushrooms are very popular among local people. They used to be imported from other countries, but now they are produced and sold locally through "waste utilization", which reduces long-distance transportation and is more ecologically friendly.

Growing mushrooms with beer scraps is not the only attempt of this company. They also tried to grow mushrooms with coffee grounds before, but failed completely - shiitake mushrooms will not grow in coffee grounds at all . They had to explore other substrates, and finally found the waste grains of beer making.

Ocean Brawl

Killer whales and humpback whales are fighting in the ocean (again)!

Why "again"? Humpback whales and killer whales are old enemies. There are records showing that humpback whales often deliberately interfere with killer whales hunting and rescue killer whales' prey. | Mollie Naccarato, Sooke Coastal Explorations, PWWA

The fight took place in the waters near the US-Canada border. At least 15 particularly active killer whales and a pair of female humpback whales were involved in the fight. When the whale-watching boat crew discovered them, they were fighting fiercely.

Crew members and tourists watched the fight, which lasted at least three hours. It was reported that there was a fierce confrontation between the killer whales and humpback whales, including tail slapping, fin biting, etc., and loud noises were heard on the water. At first, the killer whales kept trying to catch up with the humpback whales, but when the humpback whales left the killer whales far behind, they would turn back and swim to the killer whales .

One of the humpback whales tries to slap a killer whale with its fin | Mollie Naccarato, Sooke Coastal Explorations, PWWA

Regrettably, although everyone on the whale-watching boat watched eagerly, no one understood why they were fighting, or even who won in the end - there was thick fog on the sea, and as the fight went on, both the killer whales and the humpback whales disappeared.

The crew recognized several of the killer whales that participated in the fight. They were from the Beagle killer whale group, which is a group of killer whales that roam around in the sea in small groups. Compared with the killer whale groups that stay in a specific area, they are more aggressive and aggressive. The humpback whales are Hydra and Reaper, the former is an adult female, and the latter is only 4 years old, which can be regarded as a girl. If nothing unexpected happens, they will start their annual migration in the next few weeks.

Two killer whales surround a humpback whale | Mollie Naccarato, Sooke Coastal Explorations, PWWA

Streetlights protect insects

In New Zealand, scientists spent four years tracking the ecological impact of replacing street lights. The original street lights here were HPS high-pressure sodium lamps, and the new street lights are LED lamps. LED street lights not only save a lot of operating costs, but also reduce carbon emissions, but unexpectedly, this also affects the behavior of insects - after switching to LED lights, insects are not so easily attracted to street lights .

This finding was unexpected, as LEDs emit more blue light than HPS lamps, and previous studies have shown that blue light affects the behavior of many insects. However, in addition to wavelength, light intensity also affects insects, which is why LEDs have much lower light intensity than HPS lamps , making them much less attractive to insects.

Blue light attracts insects | Katja Schulz / Wikimedia Commons

Insects such as moths and mayflies that live in cities are the main victims of light pollution. Although they are small insects, they are an important cornerstone of the ecosystem and are food for many fish and birds. Once the number of insects drops sharply, it will have a chain reaction and affect other animals in the food chain.

New Zealand has already replaced 370,000 streetlights with energy-saving LEDs. If streetlights are placed further away from waterways and shore plants are used as barriers, the impact of streetlights on aquatic insects can be further reduced.

Crude oil damages Toba

Human impact on animals goes beyond streetlights. Seabirds are also greatly affected by oil pollution in the ocean. Scientists have found that even trace amounts of crude oil on the water surface - less than one percent of the thickness of a hair - can damage seabird feathers .

Atlantic shearwater [hù] (Puffinus puffinus) | Ómar Runólfsson / Wikimedia Commons

Atlantic shearwaters spend a lot of time on the surface of the water every day foraging and resting. If there is oil pollution in the ocean, they are the first to bear the brunt. The researchers collected feathers from Atlantic shearwaters to observe what changes would occur after they were exposed to oil pollution.

The results showed that even if the Atlantic shearwater is exposed to a very thin oil film with a thickness of 0.1 to 3 microns , the feather structure will change greatly and become less waterproof . If it is exposed to a thick oil slick, the weight of the feathers will increase by 10 times, directly affecting flight. Previous studies have also found that seabirds that have been exposed to oil are more likely to get wet, affected by the cold, and even their buoyancy in the water will be reduced.

Feathers of another seabird, the Rufous-billed Shearwater | Wikimedia Commons

Scientists believe that in addition to large-scale oil spills, chronic oil pollution that people often ignore, such as small amounts of oil released during mining and transportation , can also spread rapidly on the sea surface, covering the water surface with a thin film of oil. These are all unknowingly posing a huge threat to seabird populations.

References

[1] https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/fat-bear-week-2022.htm

[2] https://phys.org/news/2022-09-hair-dye-australian-sea-lion.html

[3] https://phys.org/news/2022-10-spore-merrier-boom-mushrooms-grown.html

[4] https://www.livescience.com/whale-watchers-witness-orca-humpback-showdown

[5] https://phys.org/news/2022-10-impact-energy-efficient-streetlights-insects.html

[6] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.220488

Author: Cat Tun

Editor: Mai Mai

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