Why did the small pepper wear a sweater?
Kat Eschner's newsletter about human-animal relationships, Vol. 5 iss. 2
IT WAS A LITTLE CHILI.
This week’s issue of The Quick Fox is brought to you by this stray fact that wanders through my head every now and again. Capsaicin, the active chemical in hot peppers, doesn’t actually poison you or anything. The reason it can be harmful–and the reason it hurts–is because it binds to your body’s pain receptors, causing you to freak out, or at least get a pleasurable glow.
Birds can eat spicy peppers because they have different pain receptors. They’re not hot to them. So do some tree shrews, as I learned in 2018. This just completely amazes me.
Oh, and, I’ll do a 3-page developmental edit on anything you want if you donate $25 to this GoFundMe. Each multiple of $25 will give you a further three pages.
Image: This photo of the Northern Tree Shrew, one of the animals who has decreased capsaicin sensitivity, was taken at the Bronx Zoo. (Credit: Pelican/Flickr)
Roundup
Things I read this week, sorted by the amount of time I suspect it will take you to get through them.
Shortish
Harriet Tubman, an unsung naturalist, used owl calls as a signal on the Underground Railroad (Audubon Magazine; Allison Keyes; United States of America)
Entangled right whale ‘unable to close her mouth for months’ (CBC News; Sarah Morin; New Brunswick, Canada)
RCMP allege man used rubber chicken during Tim Hortons robbery (CBC News; Melissa Gilligan; Alberta, Canada)
1950s Japanese cat’s brain helps Canadian researchers solve mercury poisoning mystery (CBC News; Alicia Bridges; Saskatchewan, Canada)
Longish
How Wet’suwet’en butterflies offer lessons in resilience and resistance (The Conversation; Sheila Colla, Dana Prieto, Lisa Myers; Toronto, Canada)
When “Meatless Mondays” aren’t enough (The New Republic; Alicia Kennedy; Puerto Rico, United States of America)
The price of protecting rhinos (The Atlantic; Cathleen O’Grady; South Africa; January 2020)
A first nation, a fight for ancestral lands, and an unlikely alliance (Atlas Obscura; Lorraine Boissoneault; British Columbia, Canada)
Please read me
My most recent work.
The last word
I had some good news this week. In January, I applied for the Knight Science Journalism Program. The fellowship would take me to MIT for nine months to (among other things) work on a project related to this newsletter. I found out Thursday that I’m on the shortlist! There are 25 of us being interviewed, of which ten will be chosen.
I’ll keep you posted about whether or not I receive a fellowship. Either way, I plan to work on the project I pitched. I’m enjoying this victory as it is, regardless of outcome: it just means a lot to have been a contender.
Questions? Comments? Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at my email or on Twitter. If you enjoy this newsletter and would like to tip me, I am on Ko-fi.
All images in The Quick Fox are used under Creative Commons licensing. Efforts have been made to ensure that photographs of living animals or natural scenes have been taken ethically, in responsible pet ownership conditions, at AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums or under safe, non-damaging conditions in the wild. If you see an issue with any image we share, please notify me.