Dept. of The More You Know

[kaffy_r]

Thank you, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

I've had these three stories opened in my tabs for too long. I think each one is fascinating. So have a look if you'd like. 

Thank you for coming to my not-ranty second Sunday post. 

An elderly wolf beats the odds

Beavers and Komodo Dragons

A vulture population crash in India and the human deaths that followed

Comments

[minnehaha]

I also read the CBC story about a man missing 90% of his brain, yet functioning normally. A family member had a hemispherectomy due to uncontrolled epilepsy. FM is leading a normal life today. But 1/2 is not the same as 90%. My gosh.

K.

[kaffy_r]

Good Lord; I hadn't seen that story. I must go and look for it on the CBC site.

[minnehaha]

I hope The Algorithm wants you to have it.

K.

[kaffy_r]

If it's been within the last 4-5 years, I can probably find it in CBC's archives.

[maruad]

I remember being shocked years ago when I heard the story of the lady whose dogs were almost killed by a beaver. Who knew that teeth that cut through trees can also cut through the bones in the front legs of dogs?

I used to link to CBC stories all the time of Twitter (which I no longer use) and FB but since their policies now only accept news stories from private news outlets, I only refer to them and let people search for themselves.

[kaffy_r]

A beaver attacking dogs? I can, unfortunately, believe it, specially after reading the story about their iron coated teeth.

I knew that Xitter had badly narrowed what news connections it allowed, but I had forgotten that it was blocking public news outlets. Gah.

[beccadg]

Thanks for the story about the vulture population crash in India. I remember when it was first happening and people were panicked trying to figure out what was killing the vultures. I'm sad to hear some are still critically endangered, but glad to hear that some are finally beginning to recover.

[kaffy_r]

Yeah, the recovery is definitely a work in progress. The whole situation shouild be a stark reminder that humans can't extricate themselves from the larger ecosystem.

[beccadg]

I'm young enough so that things where already recovering from the damage done by DDT when I was kid, but I've never forgotten the sadness my parents would talk about the loss of song birds with. It's why I was horrified as soon as news of the crashing vulture population broke. I wish I could say I was surprised by what turned out to be the cause, but I'm not. I'm just glad it was figured out so there are vulture populations to recover.

[kaffy_r]

And now comes word that the loss of bats due to white nose syndrome could very well have led to the death of infants. We cannot extricate ourselves from the circle of life, even if we wanted to.

[beccadg]

White Nose Syndrome makes me so sad. We had bats that raised families in the woodshed off the garage of the old farmhouse I grew up in. I thought they were so great. Knowing there is an estimate in Science that "the once abundant little brown bat is heading for regional extinction in the next 16 years or so" kills me. :(

[kaffy_r]

We grew up with bats as well. I loved them, despite the drama of at least once a year one or two of them coming down our chimneys, and my grandfather chasing them with a broom. I hadn't heard of the estimate, and it's heart breaking.