Feral February Episode 5 – Going stag

Posted by :David Manly On : February 7, 2014
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Category: Feral February

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Throughout the month of February, which I am calling “Feral February,” I am going to do something a little bit different – I’m going to create a series of theme posts every week day about my favourite things in the world: Animals.

Today’s animal is the stag beetle!

There are over 1,000 species of stag beetle on the planet that live in woodlots and forests, and their eggs are laid on decaying tree stumps or roots, with the larvae staying there for years until they mature.

Adult stag beetles vastly differ in size from one-quarter to 3 and one-quarter of an inch (0.5 – 8.5 cm long), with the males much larger than the females. The males are extremely imposing creatures – with enlarged mandibles that resemble the antlers of male deer (stags) – that they use in mating displays and combat with other males, which led to their name. Female stag beetles, while smaller, have more powerful jaws than the male and can bite if provoked.

Stag beetle.

Stag beetle. Photo courtesy of the Natural History Museum. Source.

 

These animals an extremely useful in the natural wood cycle of the forest, as their larvae help digest and recycle old wood while they grow into adults. The biggest danger to the stag beetle is from humans removing dead trees from the forest ecosystem for their own uses, simultaneously removing both their habitat and food source.

Daily trivia:

People believed that, once the adult stag beetles emerge, they do not feed for months, until they mate and pass away. Thanks to worldwide beetle studies, it is now believed that they substitute the wood they ate as larvae with nectar and tree sap as adults.

Here is an extra little bit of Friday trivia:

In Germany, due to the stag beetle’s association with the Norse god Thor (the god of thunder), there was a myth that if you placed a stag beetle on your head, it would protect you from being struck by lightning

Feral February Episode 4 – The jaws that bite

Posted by :David Manly On : February 6, 2014
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Category: Feral February

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Throughout the month of February, which I am calling “Feral February,” I am going to do something a little bit different – I’m going to create a series of theme posts every week day about my favourite things in the world: Animals.

Today’s animal is the alligator snapping turtle!

The alligator snapping turtle is the heaviest freshwater turtle that exists today, with the average male clocking in at 175 pounds and being the size of a large serving plate (the females weigh around 50 pounds and are significantly smaller). However, since they continue to grow throughout their lives, some males have weighed over 220 pounds!

Alligator snapping turtles are clearly identified by their large heads and the three rows of protruding spiked scales on their shells. They are found in the southwestern United States, but due to habitat loss, being hunted for their meat and being used for the exotic animal trade, their numbers have been decreasing, so they’re listed as a threatened species.

Alligator snapping turtle

Alligator snapping turtle. Photo courtesy of Gary M. Stolz/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Source.

 

These animals, like the Gaboon viper featured in a previous post, alligator snapping turtles are ambush predators, but they also scavenge at night. Unlike the Gaboon viper, instead of sitting and waiting for a prey item to come by chance, this animal opens its jaws and wriggles a small, pink, wormlike structure on the floor of its mouth to attract fish. Once fish or other prey approach the “lure,” the alligator snapping turtle (like its namesake) delivers a powerful bite – powerful enough to sever a broom handle or a human finger.

Daily dose of trivia:

I once had a run-in with an alligator snapping turtle when I was the “nature guy” at an overnight camp. I got called that someone saw a snapping turtle under the swimming dock, so I went with a friend and captured it. If you ever need to pick up an alligator snapping turtle, practice extreme caution, as their bite is extremely dangerous. To hold them safely, you grab the shell – both behind its head and at the back by its tail – so it cannot bite you because of its large head. After a few days in my care, where he ate copious amounts of fish, I relocated him to a nice river away from the camp.

Feral February Episode 3 – Quick as a whip

Posted by :David Manly On : February 5, 2014
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Category: Feral February

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Throughout the month of February, which I am calling “Feral February,” I am going to do something a little bit different – I’m going to create a series of theme posts every week day about my favourite things in the world: Animals.

Today’s animal is: The Booted racquet-tail!

The animal featured today in Feral February is an iridescent green hummingbird located in South America that has one extremely notable feature – can you spot it?

Booted raquet-tail (Ocreatus underwoodii)

Booted racquet-tail (Ocreatus underwoodii). Photo courtesy of Joseph C. Boone. Source.

 

The male booted racquet-tail has two extremely elongated feathers emerging from its tail, which end in shapes that resemble racquets (like you would use for badminton or squash), hence the name. Like most splendidly adorned birds, these additions are not for camouflage, to help itself feed or protect itself from predators – but to help it court a female. The male racquet-tail holds up its leg feathers during mating, and quickly flicks them up and down to produce a sound similar to a whip cracking.

Like other hummingbirds, the racquet-tail makes a distinct humming noise while in flight, flapping its wings repeatedly to stay aloft. You can listen to sounds the booted racquet-tail makes, including mating calls, calls during foraging to keep in contact with one another, the humming sound they make while in-flight, and more here.

Daily dose of trivia:

Did you know that most hummingbirds let their body temperature fall to almost the temperature of the surrounding air at night? This state, called “torpid,” is because hummingbirds are so tiny, and require so much energy to keep their metabolism up, that if they tried to retain their normal body heat throughout the night, they would starve.

Feral February Episode 2 – The Venomous Gaboon Viper

Posted by :David Manly On : February 4, 2014
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Category: Feral February

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Throughout the month of February, which I am calling “Feral February,” I am going to do something a little bit different – I’m going to create a series of theme posts every week day about my favourite things in the world: Animals.

Today’s animal is: The Gaboon Viper!

The Gaboon viper is the heaviest venomous snake in Africa, weighing up to eight kilograms, as well as one of the biggest (the largest on record was two metres long, or six-and-a-half feet!). It also has the highest venom yield of any snake, but luckily, it is normally docile and easily identified thanks its triangular head with two horn-like projections on its snout.

The animal is commonly an ambush predator, relying on its excellent camouflage to sit and wait for prey to come to it (usually rodents, birds and small mammals), before striking quickly. Unlike most vipers, the Gaboon viper does not bite and release, allowing the prey to run away and die before the snake finds its way to the dead animal and eats its meal. This snake bites and hangs on to the prey item, waiting for it to die.

Gaboon viper

Gaboon viper. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Source.

 

This animal is usually found on the rainforest floor in Africa, and if disturbed, may hiss in a deep and steady rhythm, slightly flattening the head to do so.

While a bite from the Gaboon viper can kill a human, the venom is not as potent as those from other snakes. Its venom is a combination of hemotoxic, which destroys red blood cells and prevents clotting, and cardiotoxic, which causes muscle damage to the heart. While bites are rare because of its docile nature, any bite is an emergency because so much venom comes with each bite that one from an average sized individual can kill.

And lastly, a bit of trivia:

The Gaboon viper has the largest fangs of any snake on the planet – up to 4 cm (almost two inches). Their fangs are also hinged, which fold into the roof of the mouth when closed. When the mouth opens, the fangs unfold outwards, ready to bite.

Feral February Episode 1 – The Wrinkly Walrus

Posted by :David Manly On : February 3, 2014
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Category: Feral February

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The wrinkled walrus, with its burly mustache and long tusks, is commonly found around the Arctic, resting on land or ice floes in large groups of hundreds of individuals.

The most recognizable feature of the walrus are its tusks, which are overgrown canine teeth that can reach around a metre in length and weigh over 10 pounds. The tusks have a variety of uses, aside from territory defense and males protecting the females during the mating season. Researchers have observed walrus’ using their tusks to make holes in the ice and even help pull themselves out of the water.

Walrus

A walrus using its tusks to support itself while grabbing a breath from a hole in the ice. Photo courtesy of Eliezg via Wikimedia commons. Source

 

The whiskers of the walrus’ mustache, called mustacial vibrissae, are used to detect food, such as shellfish, sea snails, shrimp and more hidden in the depths. They can dive for over 25 minutes at a depth of over 80 metres. The prey is then excavated with its nose, accompanied by jets of water from the mouth, and sucked up like a vacuum cleaner.

And lastly, for the trivia buffs out there:

The male walrus possess an extra bone compared to the female, called a baculum (aka a penis bone), which is longer than half-a-metre in length, the largest of any land mammal!

New website, new challenge

Posted by :David Manly On : January 31, 2014
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Category: Feral February

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Welcome to my new website!

I decided to move from my old Blogger blog (which thanks to technology will now automatically be re-directed here) since everything was too scattered on the internet and I wanted it in one convenient place. That said, it is still very much a work in progress, and if you have any suggestions in way to improve or change the website, please let me know either through a comment or the contact form located in the menu bar.

Now, on to some new business.

I am going to do something a little bit different in February – I’m going to create a series of theme posts every week day. Every day of the week there will be a new post on this website regarding my favourite things in the world: Animals.

I have countless books about animals in my possession, so I am going to use a random number generator, and randomly pick an animal in one of my many books to feature that day. Every animal is up for grabs, living or dead, and I will find something interesting about them.

The only exception will be that I will be going to the Science Online Together conference at the end of February, so I may not be able to get posts up on those days. But I will try!

Stay tuned next week for the beginning of “Feral February” – I hope you enjoy it.

Leopard

Leopard. Source

The science of Smaug the Terrible

Posted by :David Manly On : December 12, 2013
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Category: biomechanics, dragons, Science

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Earlier this year, when the television show Game of Thrones came back on air, I wrote a blog post about how (if possible) dragons could exist. But, Game of Thrones is not the only medium where dragons dwell.

I am, of course, talking about the second Hobbit film, The Desolation of Smaug (pronounced sm-OWW-gh) which features a gigantic fire-drake with an ego to match who is known by many names: Smaug the Golden, Smaug the Impenetrable, Smaug the Magnificent, Smaug the Tremendous, Smaug the Terrible, Smaug the Stupendous, The Dragon Dread, Trāgu, Lord Smaug.

But could dragons exist? Read on and find out!

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In fantasy, dragons are practically omnipresent – good guys train them, bad guys abuse their power, they horde gold, kidnap princesses, murder thousands of people … or are simply a myth in the world’s history.

But, that is in a fantasy world – what about on Earth (or an Earth-like planet)? Could dragons exist?

According to Professor John R. Hutchinson of The Royal Veterinary College in London, UK, the discussion all comes down to size and gravity. When a land animal increases in mass, gravity quickly dominates all its activities because of the various pressures it exerts on the animal’s body (but an animal in water is a very different story, just compare an elephant – the largest animal on land – with a blue whale, the largest animal in the ocean).

Now imagine an animal the size of a dragon – one long-dead in Game of Thrones was described as possessing jaws so big that it could swallow a mammoth whole and eclipse whole towns with its shadow. For much an animal to exist, it would need large bones to support its weight and muscles to move it, not to mention huge stores of energy to move and support such a large creature.

“Inevitably, the range of extreme activities that animals can do decreases as they get larger,” says Hutchinson. “So elephants don’t jump or gallop, whereas mice do; and large flying birds don’t whiz around like hummingbirds.”

One of the most identifying characteristics of a dragon is its ability to fly, but the problem of size rears its ugly head once again. As flying animals get bigger, their wing size needs to increase just as much, if not more.

“[A dragon] would need immense wings to support its weight,” said Hutchinson. “A lot of weight is wasted in that heavy tail and hind legs as well as the bulky head, too — those don’t help the dragon fly well at all. So at best such a smallish dragon would be a clumsy flier, and would have a hard time taking off.”

“If we move to a 500, let alone a 5,000 kilogram dragon, flight basically becomes out of the question in Earth’s gravity. So, one needs to invoke magic to explain a flying dragon.”

Therefore, in a world without magic, it looks like a dragon of any size would not be able to grow to such mythic proportions as described in various fantasy stories. But, what about if dragons were built like birds?

The largest bird found today is the California condor, with an average weight of 10 kilograms, a length of just over 4 feet and a wingspan of over 10 feet having been recorded (which is two and a half times its length!).

Conservatively, let us say that a dragon weighs 50 kg, and if it follows the same construction and weight distribution as a condor, than it would clock in at just over 20 feet in length and a wingspan over 50 feet.

Large? Sure. But theoretically possible.

But bigger dragons, like those described in Game of Thrones would be more like 500 kg, which would make their length 200 feet (or about two-thirds of a football field) with a wingspan of 500 feet (or the height of a 50-storey building!)

Suffice to say, even if it could exist, the physics alone would not allow such an animal to move, much less have enough energy to fly.

While dragons would not be able to fly or reach such massive size described across the globe, what about the other impressive characteristic of a dragon – its ability to spew fire?

According to Hutchinson, dragon fans will be disappointed once again.

While some animals, such as bombardier beetles, can excrete a hazardous and incendiary-type of fluid from their bodies on rare occasions for defense, fire-breathing it is not.

“Intensely hot flame takes massive amounts of energy to produce and to be hot enough to damage flesh, it would thus cook the dragon from the inside out anyway,” he adds. “I don’t see a realistic way that a very large animal could breathe some sort of fire-like substance. Tiny animals might get away with something like that on a small scale with chemical cocktails, but a huge animal would neither be able to fuel the energy needed to breathe fire nor avoid scorching itself. Again, magic (or a good imagination) is the only option to allow for such a creature.”

With fire-breathing going up in a puff of smoke along with monstrous size and ability to fly, what are we left with to satiate our need for dragons?

Source

Komodo dragons and Pterosaurs.

Komodo dragons are the largest living reptile on the planet, growing up to 10 feet and 150 kilograms, able to run up to 20 kilometres per hour and dive up to 15 feet. While not able to breathe fire, Komodo dragons do have a bad bite, filled with dangerous bacteria and venom – which they use to incapacitate and even kill prey with a single bite.

Pterosaurs, on the other hand, were flying dinosaurs existing millions of years ago. Hutchinson says that they could weigh 50 to 250 kilograms, have wingspans up to 36 feet and when standing, could be up to 18 feet (thanks to Brian Switek, paleontological guru for help with those numbers). Sadly, as with all dinosaurs, they have long since gone from this world.

“We have had large sort-of-dragon-like animals in the past in the form of pterosaurs or even sort-of-giant eagles and vultures, but a real dragon in the sense of classic or modern fantasy just ain’t going to ever happen.”

Sadly, science tells us that dragons are merely a fantasy, but it doesn’t stop millions of people loving them. Just because dragons are an impossible flight of fancy on Earth, in the lands of Westeros and Middle Earth, anything is possible.

NaNoWriMo – The Return

Posted by :David Manly On : November 3, 2013
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Category: "The Black", NaNoWriMo, secret project

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, for short), and I’ve participated in it for the past number of years, but with a slight twist.

The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to force you to write a 50,000 word novel in just four short weeks.

But I’ve never done that. I always used NaNoWriMo to further the creation of my own novel, “The Black.”

I came up with the idea for the novel when I was in journalism school, and I started writing it on this very blog. It was fun, interesting and I knew exactly where I was going. Until about chapter two or three, where the book I ended up writing did not resemble the one that I had begun.

So, I decided to stop and spend some time thinking about exactly what I wanted my novel to be. I sat down and wrote an extremely complex timeline, then a plot summary, character descriptions, etc. My book was perfectly laid out in about ten pages. All that was left was to write it.

So, I basically took what I wrote previously as a guide, and started from scratch. Since then, I have been working on it on and off for years.

My problem is this – as a writer and journalist, I spend all day writing, editing, reading and researching for work. So, when I get home, doing the same thing for hours can often feel like a bit of a chore. Sometimes, the words would just flow and I would have no problem writing and writing for hours at a time. Other times, I’d struggle to complete just one- if that.

That is not to say that I do not enjoy writing, as I do. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be a writer and a journalist.

So, I used NaNoWriMo to not necessarily start a new project (though I do have two other ideas for a novel and a short story that I’m keeping in my back pocket), but to force myself to continue writing “The Black.”

And it worked, but I am nowhere even close to being done. At all.

But this month, I am going to try something different.

Instead of continuing to write “The Black,” or even a new novel or story, I’m going to devote all that time to a new project I am developing. This project will require a lot of preparation, research and a whole host of other stuff.

But, I am extremely excited about it, and think it could incredible. And I have some amazing people that have offered their skills, expertise and extensive experience to help me out with this.

What is it?

Well, that will remain a secret for now, until it launches. But if you know me (or follow this blog), you’ll have a pretty good idea what it is about … *cough* animals *cough.*

Stay tuned!

Screaming without a voice

Posted by :David Manly On : October 19, 2013
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Category: Bora, harassment, science online

This has been an interesting week, filled with fun, sun and revelations.

This was going to be a post about all the fun I had in Miami at Science Online Oceans last week. But it’s not.  It was going to be a post about my experiences with the science online community in Miami, which I count myself lucky to be a part of. But it’s not. It was going to include photos of what I did, including seeing alligators, herons and more. But it’s not.

As fun and exciting as that was, in light of recent developments, it doesn’t really seem all that important right now.

For those who are not aware, an important figure in the science online community, who acted as a mentor to many of us, has resigned his position in midst of statements from women whom he had sexually harassed.

This is how this horrible situation came to light:

On Monday, writer Monica Byrne added a note to her blog post from last year about an experience with sexual harassment. In that note, she identified the man as Bora Zivkovic, the editor of Scientific American’s blog network and a major force in the online science community (http://monicacatherine.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/this-happened/).

In her post, she describes that during a coffee meeting to discuss her pursuit of science journalism, Bora constantly veered the conversation into the area of sex and extra-marital affairs. Understandably, she was uncomfortable, but due to his influential position, she kept silent.

Afterward, Bora followed the coffee conversation with a Facebook message, where he said that it was great to meet her and, as for all the sex talk, he wrote, “why not.”

Following that, she communicated with him detailing her feelings and what he was doing wrong, which he eventually apologized for. “He said he’d been very busy recently, but that he was very sorry,” she wrote.  “… He’d been in the midst of a “personal crisis” at the time, which was now “happily resolved.””

The online science community was already in the midst of another incident last weekend, also involving Bora, Scientific American, with the addition of the blogger Danielle Lee (http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/10/14/danielle_lee_called_an_urban_whore_how_scientific_american_bungled_the_racist.html). This incident is what inspired Monica to out Bora as the harasser in her post.

When this allegation against Bora came out, people in the community were shocked, appalled and very vocal about it. Others were more understanding, saying that one incident isn’t a trend, and that the man made a mistake.

Then, others started writing about similar experiences on Monica’s blog. Some dismissed them as simply getting on the bandwagon and trying to get attention, while others perked up their ears.

Maybe this is real, they said. Maybe this has happened before, but people were afraid. Maybe, just maybe, the man who we all revere in this community is not all he is cracked up to be.

But, Bora did post a note on his website when this news came out, acknowledging that this situation with Monica occurred (http://blog.coturnix.org/2013/10/15/this-happenned/). So they were no longer simply allegations, but were true.

In his post, he wrote, “It is not behavior that I have engaged in before or since. I hope to be known for my continued professional and appropriate support of science writers rather than for this singular, regrettable event for which I am deeply sorry.”

And people accepted this apology, and it seemed to have been dealt with internally at Scientific American a year ago when the incident occurred. But, the conversation didn’t stop.

The organizers for the ScienceOnline conference, which I have been a part of for years, issued a statement on Wednesday detailing the role of Bora going forward. He was an integral part of putting the conference together over the past several years, but due to his admission of guilt, he resigned from his position with them.

Kathleen Raven, a friend of mine from the Science Online conference, posted on her website (http://sci2morrow.com/2013/10/16/mixed-up/) her experiences with harassment. Though she does not name her harassers, her points that describe the harassment she’d dealt with for years stuck a chord in everyone.

Then, Hannah Walters, a friend I have known for years, and whom I profoundly respect and admire, wrote a post about her experience with Bora (https://medium.com/ladybits-on-medium/857e2f71059a). Her post, entitled “The Insidious Power of Not-Quite-Harassment,” deals with harassment from Bora that is made from an off-hand inappropriate joke, discussing sexual experiences and more. 

After these two posts were put online, the community could no longer deny that Bora had been sexually harassing women for years and that something had to be done. There was shock, anger and sadness rippling through our community. But most of all, there was support, respect and kindness for the women who came forward and brought these dark secrets that they have been carrying around to light.

Bora tweeted on October 16th: “No need to defend me. Kudos to @monicabyrne13 and @hannahjwaters for having the courage to speak up. I was wrong. I am sorry. I am learning.”

Then, on Friday, Kathleen, who had written a post detailing harassment throughout her life, wrote another post describing two particular experiences with harassment (https://medium.com/the-power-of-harassment/3e809dfadd77). In her post, which I highly encourage everyone to read, even though it is a difficult one, she goes into great detail of exchanges she had with Bora where he crossed the line repeatedly, made overt sexual comments, kissed her, propositioned her and more.

It was one of the only things in my life that I read and was so emotionally impacted by, that I was in stunned. And from my conversations with other people, I was not the only one to be shocked, disgusted and mortified that someone had to experience such harassment.

This caused many people to further question their interactions with Bora, indicated by the hashtag on Twitter #ripplesofdoubt on Twitter. And when it became sad and negative, people began tweeting with the hashtag #ripplesofhope to inspire.

Then, later on Friday, Scientific American released a statement saying that Bora had resigned from his position of Blog Editor for the magazine. You can read the statement here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/pressroom/pr/corporate-press-releases/2013/bora-zivkovic-resigns-from-scientific-american/

This is not over, and the conversation about preventing this behavior needs to continue. Not only in the online science community, but every community.

Hopefully, if we can take anything away from what has been revealed here about a man many people considered a colleague, mentor and friend, is that complacency is the enemy. Looking the other way and not speaking out are the wrong way to handle anything, especially harassment.

I am proud to be a member of the science online community, and have so many friends that I depend on, trust, respect and admire. But we must move forward, evolve, and make things better for the future.

I do not know how we can accomplish this, but I look forward to moving forward – together.

To everyone in this community: my friends, colleagues and those I have not yet had the pleasure to meet, I support you. We support you. Always.

Traditional (and not so traditional) traditions

Posted by :David Manly On : September 14, 2013
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Category: Animal Farm, Animal Farm movie, tradition, Yom Kippur

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As the sun sets on Yom Kippur, millions of Jews will prepare to break the fast on one of the holiest days in the entire Jewish calendar year.

Yom Kippur is known as the “day of repentance,” where Jews fast from sundown to sundown in order to repent for their sins of the past year. It is a day of reflection, personal growth and the letting go of the petty gripes that most people hang on to.

As a kid, I understood what the point of it all was, but I truly didn’t understand why such a thing was important until later. It was just a day where I didn’t eat, and I hated it. But I still did it. But why?

Because, it was tradition.

Like all families, mine had its own little traditions – which restaurants we would go to for a birthday, what celebrations we went to to see the extended family, etc.

But as time goes on, some traditions fade away, while new ones evolve in their place and take over.

For example, as a kid, during Passover (the holiday when Jews don’t eat bread), my brother and I would watch “The Ten Commandments” over and over and over again – and it was a long movie, at 220 minutes (or around 3 hours and 40 minutes)!

My mom would come in, rewind the video, press play and get a few more hours of peace from her twin boys, which was probably sorely needed.

But the best tradition, and one that I still follow to this day, is one that my brother and I made up way back in 1999/2000.

As I have mentioned in previous posts (such as this one), one of my favourite books is Animal Farm by George Orwell. I read it at least once a year, and have for decades. And while the book is a favourite of mine, the animated movie version was never that good. I think we watched it once, but never finished it.

Then, one year, I saw an ad on ABC that a new version was coming with animal puppets created by Jim Henson’s company, with such notable actors like Kelsey Grammar, Ian Holm and Sir Patrick Stewart voicing them. We waited and waited, but didn’t hear about it until its premiere date in early October 1999.

And it was fantastic! It held very close to the book and the voice and puppet effects were superb.

The trailer for the movie can be found at: http://youtu.be/LAeKX5n-5IE (For some reason, it was not working to put it into the blog – sorry!)

The following year, on Yom Kippur, my brother and I could not decide how to waste our time until we could eat again. When looking through our VHS movies, I stumbled upon our copy of Animal Farm, so we watched it.

The following year, the same problem – this time, my brother found it and jokingly said that we should watch it. I agreed, and so we did. Again and again and again, year after year after year.

So, for the past 13 years, whether we were in the same city or not (or even fasting or not), Daniel and I continue to watch Animal Farm – it has become our tradition!

Whether a tradition is thousands of years old, or just a few years, they help us feel connected to everyone else who does them, establishing a sense of community and togetherness, no matter where you are.