Sharks Have A Crap Life

Let’s have a show of hands: who here is afraid of sharks? Now, who is afraid FOR sharks? Uh huh, cool…OK, who here is wondering why I’m telling people I can’t see to raise their hands? Excellent question.

OH LOOK A SHARK.

WHAT. WHERE.

For those of you afraid of sharks, I understand. They’re big and scary and carnivorous and they’re real shitty at telling the difference between fat seals and skinny guys on surfboards. So a strong respect for the shear carnage they can wreak upon your person is good, healthy, even. But trust me, when it comes to human-shark relations, sharks deserve much more concern for THEIR well being than you do for yours. Hell, they deserve more concern in general.

Sharks have a crap time of it from day 1. I don’t mean from the minute of they’re out of mama, I mean the moment they’ve developed enough inside mama to wriggle around. Because if they have any siblings in there, the fight for survival has BEGUN. Sand tiger and mackerel shark pups have been known to eat one another WHILE STILL IN THE WOMB. How metal can you get? They’ll even eat unfertilized eggs until only the strongest pups remain (the uterus is divided or there would be only one). Cue sick guitar solo.

Although this just occurs in viviparous (live-bearing) and ovoviparous (eggs hatch in the uterus), oviparous sharks have it rough too. Their little egg cases are just left behind, abandoned in the sand or reef to hatch alone…

Cue sad violin.

However! At least when they hatch it’s not a race to escape mama. Shark parturition (birth) actually induces feelings of satiety in mama so that she’s not tempted to eat her pups. Not like they’ll stick around to test that.

If you want still more reasons to feel for the sharks, consider our interactions with them. In China, shark fin soup is a delicacy (despite the fin being mostly cartilage) and fisherman will catch sharks just to cut off the dorsal fin and leave the shark to die. Now, I am no vegetarian, but I believe that if you’re going to eat an animal, it’s life should not be so miserable that death is a mercy (see treatment of veal calves, if you can) and the method in which the animal is killed should be quick and relatively painless. Not to mention the rest of the shark is edible too. Not that we should be eating sharks anyway, because between our weird eating habits and shark-killing freakouts every time one wanders near a tourist site, there are many threatened and endangered shark species. Shark attacks are terrible, but more people are mauled by dogs and killed by cows each year than are attacked by sharks. That’s right, cows are the real Public Enemy Number One. Sharks are just more exciting and gruesome so they make the news. No one wants their family to be The Guy That Got Killed By a Cow Last Yeat; they hush that shit right up.

There are plenty of resources out there for avoiding shark encounters. Beach signs, defense tips, checklists shark threat level (Murky water? Fishing nearby? Maybe read on the sand today)…some beaches even have Twitter feeds for alerting beach-goers of shark sightings. It’s OK to be cautious, but when you’re feeling scared and wish they’d all just disappear, remember: sharks have a crap life.

So don’t hate a shark, hug a shark!

But like, one of the little ones, maybe a dogfish.

Cause let’s not tempt fate here, people.

Also those guys are pretty damn cute.

If you don’t think this is cute, then we’re not friends.

Sources

Frances, Peter and Angeles Gavira Guerrero. 2008. Ocean: The World’s Last Wilderness Revealed. 1^st American ed. New York. DK Publishing

Greven, H. 2000. “Viviparous Sharks.” Shark Info. Jan 3 2014 < http://www.sharkinfo.ch/SI1_00e/vivipary.html>

Photo Credit

Franco Banfi/Barcroft Media, Matthew Oxley and Doug Perrine.

Writer’s Block

Once more I must call upon you, my readers, for topic ideas. I’m just finishing up with biochemistry so I’m hoping to do a lot more writing in the coming weeks. But I need ideas! The biochem I’ve been looking at lately is…not so interesting to write about. Unless y’all want to hear me talk about this enzyme oxidizing this, which is modified by that, and so on and so forth.

Here’s a cute leopard cub to sweeten the deal:

Mustelid-day 3: Your Old/New BFFs

I swear that I am getting CRAZY stuff done when I’m not here. CRAZY. I swear.

Ahem…

Anyway! Where was I? Ferrets, right?

Right.

Of the three ferret species in the world, the black-footed ferret is the only one native to North America. And we kind of ruined its shit.

Formerly, our little (“little”, they can be up to two feet long) BFFs of the prairie, rocked the nights away (they’re nocturnal) on the mixed grass and short grass prairie scene. Literally. They are lively little suckers.

They are also really into the underground scene (they’re fossorial). Tunnels are their THING, man. Not their tunnels, though, prairie dog tunnels. Why tire your stubby little paws digging when a few hundred prairie dogs can do it for you? Exactly: Prairie Dog Construction Crew. Plus our BFFs can eat the crew when they’re done. But our BFFs depend on this kind of convenience; a pair ferret needs around 10,000 prairie dogs within its territory in order to survive. Good thing they’re usually solitary, but still; DAMN.

Now, to get at where humans come in to ruin everything. As farms blossomed on the lone prairie, many prairie dog towns were tilled into oblivion, and most of our BFFs with them. Where once there were hundreds of millions of prairie dogs, now there are, like, 20 million. A sizable dent in their numbers, but not so bad, eh? Well, the tilling that only dented the prairie dog population, endangered our BFFs. They now occupy less than 2% of their former range. Also, since there are still more than plenty of prairie dogs to go around, it means that those guys are running amok on the prairie. Their other predators are just not picking up the slack. Solution: captive breeding programs and reintroduction. Simple? NEVER. This kind of shit is never simple. Just ask a Montanan about wolves. Anyway, the issue is controversial because ferrets require prairie dogs (SO MANY PRAIRIE DOGS) and that means that the same people that want prairie dog population control will have to leave those P-Dog towns alone for our BFFs to do their thang. If this doesn’t seem like a big deal, imagine you are a rancher and prairie dog holes are breaking your cows’ legs. Yeah, it’s not going over well.

This isn’t to say there is not a solution! We just need to get along, and why can’t we all just get along? We have to, for our BFFs.

Sources

–. 2011. “Ferret Facts- Animal Profile.” Black-Footed Ferret Recover Program. Black-footed Ferret Recovery Implementation Team. August 1, 2013. < http://blackfootedferret.org/animal-profile&gt;

Cogger, Harold G., Joseph Forshaw, Edwin Gould, George McKay and Richard G. Zweifel. 2002. “Carnivores”. Encyclopedia of Animals. Barnes and Noble Books, New York.

Krebs, Candace. 2013. “Ferret’s Link to Prairie Dogs Underlies Opposition.” La Junta Tribune Democrat. August 1, 2013 < http://www.lajuntatribunedemocrat.com/article/20130726/NEWS/130729959&gt;

Mustelid-day 2: Do As You Otter

Yeah, so when I said I was going to write about ferrets and otters “in the next couple of days” I should have known it would be “the next couple of days in which forms and packing are not consuming my life”. I would say mission accomplished today, except there’s a small stack of papers by my elbow that look suspiciously form-like. HMMMMM.

Anyway, while I decide what to do about my potentially devious paperwork. I promise you otters and by God you lot shall have otters!

 

Sea otters and river otter belong to a subfamily of Mustelidae called Lutrinae. All thirteen species share a similar brown coloring and highly playful and social nature. They are so damn fun that a group of otters is called a “romp”. Because they do. Romp, that is. Although all otters are social, different species will form different kinds of romps, some separate into romps of females with pups and males, while others will forms random, mixed sex romps. Which sounds a bit more exciting that it probably is. But what do I know, Giant Amazon River Otters do that and they can be up to six or seven feet long (tail included). That’s pretty exciting, right?

Another common feature of Lutrinae, is their dense, highly insulating and unfortunately soft fur. I say “unfortunately” because human demand for otter fur has seriously endangered certain species. Sea otters are one such species, who have not only experienced severe population reduction, but their reduced presence has had an immense impact of marine habitats. This is because sea otters are a keystone species. I don’t mean that they prefer cheap and terrible beer, I mean that they occupy such an important niche in their community (that is, the biotic aspects of a given environment) that anything affecting them affects the entire community. You know that adorable way that otters bash shit open on rocks they set on their stomachs? So cute! Well, besides various mollusks, sea otters love bashing open sea urchins. In turn, sea urchins LOVE kelp (they’re really only able to eat the bottom bit, or the holdfast, though), which form the base of kelp forest communities. Starting to see where this is going? If you don’t, here’s a hint: imagine an animal that eats tree roots (holdfasts are NOT equivalent, they’re an anchor, but you get the idea). Though they only eat the tree’s roots, this cripples the tree and ultimately kills it. This animal is voracious and prolific and can destroy whole forests if unhindered. This does not just affect the trees, but all the plants and animals that live in them and among them. Birds that nest, rodents that burrow under roots, shade-loving plants and more. Without trees they are toast. Thankfully, this tree-ravening animal has a few predators and one of these predators can eat enough of this animal that their impact is minimal. I think you get it now: the tree-killer is the sea urchin and the predator is the sea otter. By reducing sea otter populations, entire kelp forests and their supported communities become vulnerable. As it stands, many forests have been destroyed, with only urchin barrens remaining. While some areas possess other predators able to pick up the slack, others suffer terribly as sea otter populations make their slow recovery. It certainly does not help that the otters need anchored kelp to rest on as part of their habitat.

Moral of the story? Support habitat conservation and reintroduction efforts! Also eat more urchin.

 

Source

Cogger, Harold G., Joseph Forshaw, Edwin Gould, George McKay and Richard G. Zweifel. 2002. “Carnivores”. Encyclopedia of Animals. Barnes and Noble Books, New York.

Yancey, Paul. “Keystone Species.” Marine Biology. Whitman College. Walla Walla, WA. 5 4 2011. Lecture.

Photo credit, me.

Happy Mustelid-day

First, I would like to say that I am in the process of moving and filling out various and sundry paperwork.

Second, the process of filling out various and sundry paperwork FILLS ME WITH RAGE. RAGE that only the Mustelidae family can calm. But honestly though, if you want a thing turned in for verification on one day and that’s four weeks before the listed deadline, WHY WOULDN’T YOU MAKE THOSE DATES THE SAME.

Ahem, anyway…Mustelidae!

Mustelidae include martens, skunks, otters, wolverines, badgers, and other more or less weasel-y things. They’re a carnivorous family and regardless of the fame of other carnivores like canids and big cats, boast twice the species of any other family of carnivores. Cute AND numerous. Except for wolverines, those are CRANKY. More impressively though, is the fact that mustelids are flipping EVERYWHERE. Land, sea air, you name it! Except for air, that was a lie. But forests, lakes, desert, burrowing, swimming, arboreal, anywhere and on anything unless that something is Antarctica or Australia. Weasel No-Man’s Land right there. Doesn’t mean they’re any easier to find (the tricky bastards), but you at least know that anywhere else, there are Mustelida somewhere.

Since UNDYING RAGE and my need for sustenance call me now, over the next couple days I will cover some very important and/or famous mustelids: black-footed ferrets and sea otters.

Source

Cogger, Harold G., Joseph Forshaw, Edwin Gould, George McKay and Richard G. Zweifel. 2002. “Marsupials”. Encyclopedia of Animals. Barnes and Noble Books, New York.

Photo Credit: M. Lockhart/USFWS

Kidding Around Part 2

Back to goat guts.

 

Once a goat has masticated a mouthful (preferably grass and NOT my hair), it travels down the esophagus into the forestomach. The forestomach consists of the first three compartments of the entire stomach, the rumen, the reticulum and the omasum. At this point the food is less food and more of a wet mass. Scientists call it a bolus, but in ruminants it tends to be called cud. As in the stuff they regurgitate to chew on. Anyway, the rumen and reticulum are quite large, most of the anaerobic bacterial fermentation occurs here, besides some absorption of simple molecules and nutrients. Furthermore, food can loop from rumen, to reticulum back to the mouth a couple times before it is digested enough to move on to the omasum. Non-food items (like my hair) will make this trip a quite a few times, assuming the goat does not eventually give up (unlikely) or realize that this particular bite is not terribly appetizing (hella unlikely). Anyway, this loop of repeated mastication, fermentation and absorption greatly increases the efficiency of digestion. If you’ve ever wondered why it’s harder for humans to be herbivores, among other things, our omnivore digestive tract is a LOT less efficient at tackling an exclusively plant-based diet. Our digestive tract is more like that of a carnivore, particularly in terms of length (proteins are much easier to digest so carnivore digestive tracts and relatively short).

Again, back to the goat guts. When the bolus/cud has been chewed for the last time, it heads straight for the omasum. Here water and more nutrients are absorbed via the omasum’s highly folded surface. Oh, and get this: the omasum SORTS shit. Seriously. Big stuff that needs more ruminating will get chucked back (and possibly up-chucked) for more digesting. Anything not turned back continues on to the abomasum. The abomasum secretes acids to digest proteins and rumen microbes (remember the NPCs? They need to stay put or they’ll cause an infection) before the bolus moves on to the intestine as gooey chyme. Nummers. If the digesting goat in question is a kid, the abomasum will also secrete rennin (cheese, anyone?) to clot casein (milk protein) for better digestion.

With the high appetizing chyme now safely in the intestine, I think most of you get the rest: highly folded small intestine continues to absorb water and nutrients, chyme gets denser as it is moved via peristaltic waves (muscles squeezing it down the line) to the large intestine for compression and eventual expulsion. Probably right when the goat’s yard has just been swept.

You guys are lucky you’re so cute.

 

 

Source

Sherwood, Lauralee, Hillar Klandorf and Paul Yancey. 2005. Animal Physiology: From Genes to Organisms. Thomson Brookes/Cole, Belmont, CA.

Photo credit, me.

Kidding Around

OK, so goats.

I love goats. Not just itty kiddies, but grown ones too. Not sure why, they’re not usually terribly cuddly. Although if you scritch that spot on their backs, right between the hind legs they just go weak in the knees and it’s adorable.

Anyway, in high school I volunteered at the local zoo’s (Woodland Park Zoo) “Family Farm” which featured goats and other farm animals that are part of the summer petting zoo. Besides tidying their stables, etc., we were responsible for keeping the goats and sheep social in the winter so that when summer came they did not flip any shits over small children trying to pet them. Or at least in one goat’s case, make sure he continued to ignore/avoid everything (he was not actually in contact area at all, but we continued to dream).

So we got used to the goaty quirks, like chewing on our hair and coats. You would also notice them stand still, not moving then suddenly belch softly and start chewing, mouth abruptly full. If you think they just regurgitated something to continue chewing on it…you are exactly right. Goats are herbivores, and considering the low nutritional value of plants, and the high difficulty in digesting large quantities of plant fibers, they possess a stomach with four compartments with which they tackle their dinners. The biggest contribution to digestion in goats comes from bacteria. Bacteria actually aid in fermentation of ingesta (ingested food/miscelani). Though periodically the goats need to regurgitate things that require more chewing.

That’s just a little introduction, but I will continue tomorrow.

Source

Sherwood, Lauralee, Hillar Klandorf and Paul Yancey. 2005. Animal Physiology: From Genes to Organisms. Thomson Brookes/Cole, Belmont, CA.

Photo credit, me.

True Facts

These videos are amazing and hilarious and I’m sharing because I love you all.

No Such Thing As Islands

They say, “No man is an island”, but really, NOTHING is an island. An island isn’t even an island (Take that, They). You can’t go a day without interacting with another organism, whether you like it or not. I mean, I guess if you found a totally sterile room and killed all your body’s natural microbiota, but that’s cost-prohibitive and a little pointless. Even though there are plenty of harmful organism interactions, like petitioning and workplace pen-stealing, there are many beneficial interactions as well as a few…questionable ones.

Predation is one interaction that comes most readily to mind. One organism consumes another, to the predator’s advantage and the prey’s disadvantage. Another reason not to live in the crazy sterile room: you would also get hungry without so much as a plant organism to eat. Yes, herbivores do predate in a sense. But herbivory does not necessitate eating an entire organism; most just eat part. For instance, a cow will only eat the blades (leaves) of grass, not the roots. So the plant lives, battered and torn, but alive. Truly, cows are the cruelest of creatures.

Truly.

Similar to predation, parasitism involves one organism benefitting from the interaction to the other’s detriment. However in this instance, the parasite may not directly consume its host and definitely does not want to kill its host (at least not before it can reproduce). It’s like That One Housemate you had in college. They’re way too loud way too late at night, they eat your snacks and give away the endings to your video games, they ruin your shit and are always (ALWAYS) two days late with rent, but they do the dishes and keep the bathroom clean so you don’t kick them out even though they’re slowly draining your life away. You’ll crack in the middle of your Intro to Econ midterm, but by that time The Housemate will have moved on the a new host. Unlike an actual parasite, they will probably not have reproduced prior to this. Probably.

Check the basement.

 

(More interactions tomorrow)

 

Sources

Yancey, Paul. “Biotic Factors.” Marine Biology. Whitman College. Walla Walla, WA. 5 4 2011. Lecture.

Photo credit me.

Gifts of the Spices and Seasonings Part 2

After yesterday’s post, I’m sure you’re all wondering HOW your curry is antimicrobial. If not, then I’m not doing my job right! Or you’re not eating enough curry. Anyway, the true heroes of microbial inhibition are sulfur dioxide and phenols. For those of you unaware, a sulfur dioxide molecule contains one atom of sulfur bonded to two oxygen atoms (hence the “dioxide” bit). In your bloodstream after a nice garlic-and-onion-filled meal, it relaxes the blood vessel walls and thereby reduces blood pressure while giving you the kind of breath that would scare buzzards. Great stuff, right? Bacteria would not agree. While some bacteria LOVE sulfur, those involved in food spoilage do not. Sulfur dioxide gets all up in bacterial protein business, completely messing up their shit by binding to components of oxidation. Enzymes are particularly affected and their reduced function is lethal for the bacteria.

Phenols on the other hand don’t roll that way. Carbon rings with an alcohol group and other various bells and whistles, “phenol” is a very broad chemical term. However, when you’re thinking of antimicrobial components of spices, you’re thinking of eugenol, thymol and carvacrol. Found in cinnamon, cloves, sage and oregano, these phenols are badass. Quite simply, they destroy cell membranes. Doesn’t matter where, doesn’t matter what, fungi, bacteria, in a box with a fox, whatever. They’ll take it down.

So next time your coworkers commence sniffling and sneezing, grab what cold remedy you will, but to really battle the bugs, just spice things up a little.

 

Oh, and since I don’t have any fun, pertinent pictures today, here’s a sea otter washing his face.

 

 

Source

-. 2009. Winemaking. Practical Winery and Vineyard Journal. March 26, 2013.

-. 2010. GRE Subject Test: Biology 5th Ed. Kaplan, New York.

Billing, J and PW Sherman. 1998. Antimicrobial functions of spices: why some like it hot. Quarterly Review of Biology 73(1):3-49.

Oyedomi, SO, AI Okoh, LV Mabinya, G Pirochenva and AJ Afolayan. 2009. The proposed mechanism of the bactericidal action of eugenol, terpineol and terpinene against Listeria monocytogenes, Streptococcus pyogenes, Proteus vulgaris and Escherichia coli. African Journal of Biotechnology 8 (7): 1280-1286.

Sherwood, Lauralee, Hillar Klandorf and Paul Yancey. 2005. Animal Physiology: From Genes to Organisms. Thomson Brookes/Cole, Belmont, CA.

Photo courtesy of me, otter courtesy of the Seattle Aquarium