Y'all got any uhhh... uhhhhh.... lamps?
Kat Eschner's newsletter about animal-human relationships, Vol. 4 Iss. 2
This week’s issue of CREATURE FEATURE is brought to you by fire. I saw a video on Twitter of a screaming, burned koala being rescued from historic bushfires in Australia and I’ve been thinking about it for a few days now. I normally avoid graphic video unless I have to watch it for work. In this case I just felt… compelled. It was upsetting. The above link is to a story about the bushfires, not the video.
Science journalists are writing about fire and its costs a lot more than they used to, for obvious reasons. Years of faulty fire management and historic drought are coming due around the world, a price paid by wild animals, pets and livestock as well as people.
Animals have always died in wildfires, and nature has never put any weight on their agony. That doesn’t mean it lacks weight.
Save the bugs! Turn off ALAN!
So say some researchers. “Artificial light at night (ALAN) is human-caused lighting—ranging from streetlights to gas flares for oil extraction,” one author told The Guardian’s Damian Carrington. “It can affect insects in pretty much every imaginable part of their lives.”
Extra credit: You can’t pretend that Gen Z doesn’t know about ALAN’s impact on insects.
Nobody knows exactly how the cops killed a juvenile bobcat in Oregon
And people are worried about it, writes Erin Ross for Oregon Public Broadcasting.
The killing of the animal by Oregon State Police was criticized by many wildlife and animal advocates. They said the cat should have been moved and re-released. Indeed, another bobcat, presumably the first one’s sibling, was removed from the same Eugene school, Oak Hill, the next day, and was released alive.
Public criticism intensified after state police confirmed it had killed the animal with “blunt force trauma,” a method that the American Veterinary Medical Association’s 2013 guidelines say is only humane when the animal has a small or underdeveloped skull, and that they discourage using if any other option is available. Since then, wildlife advocates have called the death a “bludgeoning” and asked for more information.
Poop power
The Toronto Zoo has partnered with other local organizations to build a biogas plant that will use zoo animal poop to produce electricity. “The plant will use an anaerobic digester where bacteria will break down animal waste as well as other organic waste, like food waste, in an oxygen-free environment,” writes Reka Szekely for Oshawa This Week.
Image: A meme-style image of a moth, which reads “Y’all got any uhhh… uhhh… lamps”
A raggedy brown and white springer spaniel was cruising the pavement for scraps. It wandered over to our group and began to snuffle excitedly at our hands and pockets. Its coat was matted with stalactites of dirt and its tongue hung from its jaws like a sodden pink sock. It stank like a heap of used bath towels, and was clearly a stray.
—Colin Barrett, from“Let’s Go Kill Ourselves”
Extra credit
News:
Florida dog does donuts in owner’s car (CNN, Andrew Scottie)
Still no life on Mars (CNET, Amanda Kooser)
Released animals from Russian whale jail doing alright (CBC News, Chris Brown)
Longreads:
Do gorillas think about thinking? (The Atlantic, Ed Yong)
Please read me
My most recent work.
Doctors placed gunshot victims in ‘suspended animation’ for the first time
Cannabis might help curb chronic pain, reducing the need for opioids
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 CREATURE FEATURE 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.