More unsettling news from the bottom of the world.
Scientists have uncovered evidence of “vigorous melting” at Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, according to a new study published Monday. And for the first time, there is visible evidence that shows warm seawater pumping underneath the glacier.
The Thwaites Glacier, part of the vast West Antarctic Ice Sheet, is one of the world’s fastest-changing and most unstable glaciers. It’s called the Doomsday Glacier because of its potential to dramatically raise sea levels in places such as Florida, and it has been studied for years as an indicator of human-caused climate change.
Study results also suggest the Antarctic Ice Sheet is more vulnerable to a warming ocean than previously thought, and, worryingly, may “require a reassessment of sea-level rise projections.”
“Thwaites is the most unstable place in the Antarctic and contains the equivalent of 60 centimeters (two feet) of sea-level rise,” said study co-author Christine Dow of the University of Waterloo in Ontario. “The worry is that we are underestimating the speed that the glacier is changing, which would be devastating for coastal communities around the world.”
To conduct the study, scientists used high-resolution satellite radar data to find evidence of the intrusion of warm, high-pressure seawater many miles beneath the grounded ice of Thwaites glacier.
Study lead author Eric Rignot of the University of California−Irvine told USA TODAY that there’s much more seawater flowing into the glacier than had been previously thought. These “intrusions make the glacier more sensitive to ocean warming, and more likely to fall apart as the ocean gets warmer.”
Future projections of global sea-level rise will have to include this new data, Rignot said. “The projections will go up,” he said.
Rising seas, swamped cities
As it melts, Thwaites could cause ocean levels to rise as much as 2 feet, researchers say. But the glacier is also a natural dam to other ice in West Antarctica. If that ice is released into the oceans, levels could rise 10 feet, researchers estimate.
Such a rise would put many of the world’s coastal cities underwater. According to the new study, it “will gravely impact populations in many low-lying areas like Vancouver, Florida, Bangladesh and low-lying Pacific islands, such as Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands.”
There has been a substantial uptick in birds in New Jersey getting stuck and seriously injured in glue traps that people often attach to tree trunks to try and kill invasive insects like spotted lanternflies.
Late spring through summer and fall is when the experts at The Raptor Trust in Long Hill Township, Morris County usually see these bird injuries, many of them fatal, said Executive Director, Christopher Soucy.
More importantly, this is avoidable, he said. Birds do not have to prematurely die at the hands of these glue traps.
Spotted lanternfly (NJ DEP)
“For many years, we’ve seen a few birds a year caught in glue traps but since the invasion of spotted lanternflies, we’ve seen our numbers really go up. For instance, we were going from 8 to 10 birds a year that we might see in these glue traps to 32 in 2021, and then up to 83 in 2022,” Soucy said.
The Raptor Trust has taken in nearly 200 birds in the last four years that have been caught in these sticky traps, he said. It is simply a horrific scene.
People typically put out these rolls of sticky glue tape on trees to catch lanternflies, and other invasive bugs, Soucy said. Sure, the bugs do get caught, but he said the glue traps are indiscriminate, low-quality pest management.
Every year, birds are attracted to the struggling bugs on the glue traps either out of curiosity or they’re looking for food, Soucy said. Unfortunately, the birds that are attracted to the bugs on the glue traps become stuck themselves.
The birds get their feathers caught in the sticky glue and as they struggle, they get more feathers caught.
“Sometimes we’ve seen birds with all of their tail feathers, all of their primary wing feathers on both wings completely stuck. We’ve seen birds that have broken their own bones trying to free themselves,” Soucy said.
When The Raptor Trust gets these bird victims in, it’s a traumatic scene. Some of them die just from the stress. The survival rate on them is barely above 50 percent, Soucy said.
So what’s Soucy’s advice about catching those pesky, invasive, tree-damaging spotted lanternflies?
Simple. Don’t put out glue traps. He said they don’t really solve the problem anyway, and there are more humane traps that can be installed that will help catch the bugs, but not harm the birds and other small mammals like chipmunks, and bats.
One idea is to construct a funnel trap. It has a small entrance that’s perfect for catching bugs, but it’s not big enough for a small mammal or a bird to fit through, he said.
The Raptor Trust Facebook
It’s easy to find information about funnel and circle traps. Soucy said when spotted lanternflies first started to become rampant in the northeast, researchers from The University of Pennsylvania did a series of instructional videos on these humane funnel and circle traps.
Also, keep in mind that any native wild bird in North America is protected by state and federal law. It’s a crime to intentionally injure them. So, if people are putting out glue traps, guess what? Birds will get stuck in them, and possibly die, Soucy said.
Four birds have been found caught in glue traps so far this year and brought to The Raptor Trust for treatment. But Soucy said those glue traps do not appear to be spotted lanternfly-related.
Spotted lanternfly (NJ DEP)
The 2022 Raptor Trust report provides details as to how the staff attempts to treat these feathery victims.
Soucy said they use a veterinary-grade solvent that helps dissolve the glue and free the bird from the trap. Then, they try to stabilize the bird from the stress. Then, gently over time, more solvent is used to get any remaining glue off of their feathers.
He said if a bird loses feathers, it’s a long recovery. Birds can and do replace all their feathers every year during a complete molt. But Soucy said the molt usually happens through the spring and summer. Birds need their feathers to stay warm during the winter so the molting process does not happen during the winter months.
The Raptor Trust Facebook
So, if a bird comes to The Raptor Trust in late summer that’s already molted and loses more feathers due to a glue trap, it’s with the organization for an entire year. The bird has to wait out the entire season until it molts new feathers.
“We don’t really want to do that. Any day in captivity for a wild animal is a bad day full of danger. They don’t know that they’re in good care. They don’t know that we’re trying to help them,” Soucy said.
Birds can be injured in captivity despite their best efforts, Soucy said. The goal is to get them back into the wild as soon as possible.
But, if they lose so many feathers that they can’t fly, it can be a long stay in captivity, which is potentially dangerous to their well-being, he said.
Determined not to disturb wildlife, researchers in Uganda are using a technology that dates back to 1906.
A man sets up a camera trap in Uganda. (Credit: Volcanoes Safaris)
In 2023, a study made headlines of how wild animals fear human voices more than the roar of wild predators. The researchers found that wild animals are twice as likely to run away if they hear the sound of people talking.
But understanding these animals is vital for research in conservation and biodiversity. So how do we gather important data without disturbing their peace?
Uganda has embraced technology to confront this question and at the forefront lies a powerful ally: camera traps.
These cameras, which are triggered by nearby motion, trace their roots back to 1906 when the National Geographic Magazine featured George Shiras’ captivating night wildlife photographs. These images, known for their candid animal behavior, marked a significant milestone in wildlife photography and laid the groundwork for modern conservation efforts.
Shiras, born in Pennsylvania in 1859, would become an advocate for camera hunting, with a passion for photographing wildlife and a commitment to protecting the wild.
According to National Geographic, he “mimicked a hunting technique he learned from the Ojibwa tribe called jacklighting, when fire is placed in a pan at the front of a canoe and the hunter sits in the bow of the boat.”
This technique allowed Shiras to photograph the animal standing still, as their attention was caught by the flames.
An expanded purpose
The evolution of wildlife night photography comes not only with improved technology but also with an expanded purpose. While still used for capturing the beauty of the unknown, today, wildlife researchers globally are also using camera trapping to monitor populations.
Bosco Atukwatse, Field Coordinator at Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust (VSPT) in Uganda, said that camera trapping is “particularly focusing on animals with unique identifiable features.”
Consider leopards, hyenas, zebras and giraffes. The patterns and stripes of these creatures have a unique arrangement on each animal within a species, akin to a human’s fingerprint.
According to Atukwatse, the camera traps first capture the images of the different animals and then formulas are used by researchers to analyze the animals’ unique features.
“We analyze these data sets in a Bayesian model, where we come up with parameters of operation, such as operation densities. We then detect the movements of animals, determine their home range and finally narrow it down to numbers,” Atukwatse said.
Understanding healthy and unhealthy populations
The idea started off Dr. Alexander Braczkowski and Uganda Wildlife Authority’s nationwide carnivore census across the country’s parks in 2018, to bolster the monitoring of carnivores in Queen Elizabeth National Park and across the country.
The results could be explained this way:
“One, the lion numbers were not so bad. But we saw an unhealthy population — a healthy population is where you have a good number of females of a certain species compared to the number of males,” said Atukwatse.
“So for lions, we have a sex ratio of 2.9 males to one female. That is a skewed sex ratio, meaning it is two, or let’s say two and a half males per female. It is supposed to be the vice versa.”
The camera traps helped Atukwatse’s team to discover that there is a chance people are seeing the same lions on a daily basis.
“After spotting a lion while driving in a truck, you may return the next day and observe another lion in the same location. However, you are unsure if it’s the same lion or a different one,” he said.
Thanks to the lions’ unique whisker spots, now the team is looking at capturing this data to identify the king of the jungle’s home range.
The same goes for leopards. The findings in Queen Elizabeth National Park have revealed there are only two leopards per 100 square kilometers, indicating a potentially unhealthy population density.
According to Atukwatse, the leopards were monitored “by determining how many individual leopards were captured on camera traps and how frequent an individual leopard was captured.”
“Additionally, we track how many times the same leopard appears on different camera traps and calculate the distance covered, which helps us understand the leopard’s moving ability.”
Conflict between farmers and wildlife
A couple of factors can explain the numbers above, Atukwatse said.
“There’s a notable movement of male lions crossing between Congo and Uganda. The frequent movement of lions across borders poses risks as the porous borders become vulnerable points for poachers who set snares, leading to lions getting trapped,” he said.
“These regions not only attract poachers but also witness cows grazing within the park boundaries. Lions, known for their opportunistic hunting behavior, are naturally drawn to easy prey like cows. This often leads to conflicts when farmers discover their livestock has been attacked. In retaliation, they set traps or poison the carcasses.”
And when these lions return for more, it is poison they are consuming.
Despite these challenges and others such as the tragic incident in 2021 where six lions, over 40 vultures and an unreported number of hyenas were poisoned and mutilated in Queen Elizabeth National Park, conservationists remain committed to implementing mitigation strategies.
Other technology is used to track lions, including an online system that receives signals from radio collars attached to them. Although this system provides valuable data on their movements, it’s crucial to supplement this with physical checks to ensure the lions’ wellbeing.
“Recently, we encountered a lion entangled in a poacher’s rope,” Atukwatse said. “And if we had delayed a bit, that leg would be chopped off — actually, we have a couple of casualties in the park which are missing a leg.”
Deterring revenge kills through compensation
To deter retaliatory killings of wildlife, a compensation program is being implemented through a partnership with Uganda Carnivore Program, another NGO operating in the northern region of Queen Elizabeth.
“Additionally, Uganda Wildlife Authority has allocated 20% of park entrance collections to fund this scheme,” Atukwatse said.
This means that when an animal injures or kills livestock belonging to community members, they receive compensation. This approach helps deter retaliatory killings and promotes coexistence between humans and wildlife. Though Atukwatse, to some extent, thinks this compensation idea seems “theoretical”.
On site, the veterinary department will ensure that carcasses are promptly removed from the point of attack, to avoid tempting lions with more food, but also denying the locals a chance at using the carcasses as bait in retaliation.
Capturing other forms of movement
Atukwatse said they have some photos and videos of poachers running with fish, water and dogs in the parks.
“So they expose everything, because one thing is these cameras are quite camouflaged. You can actually place them somewhere in a thicket, someone will just pass without noticing,” Atukwatse said.
When poachers are captured on video, footage is shared with authorities and an ambush is laid.
“Of course these camera traps won’t segregate on what to capture. They will always capture whatever passes there. So that is also important in a way that there’s a likelihood of even finding what other people haven’t ever seen. I mean a new species or a very rare species or a critically endangered species,” Atukwatse said.
In fact, these same camera traps have recently captured the first-ever recorded pangolin in the park. Pangolins are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“You see, now it adds value to the conservation status for pangolins in the country. We tried to reach out to specialists in pangolin conservation and they gave us ideas on how we should run this if we could actually set more camera traps, so that we could try and see if we could capture some of them with babies or spot one in danger for rescue, because they’re also not excluded from being trapped by wire snares,” Atukwatse said.
Capturing the unknown
The team anticipates capturing previously unseen nocturnal wildlife — thanks to the thermo and motion sensors on the cameras — unveiling hidden treasures yet to be witnessed by human eyes.
“You know, there are a lot of moments that happen at night in the wild field, as compared to those that we are able to see with our eyes,” Atukwatse said.
“So these camera traps, which are motion sensors, will always capture, as we are there to see and share with the world.”
Esme Stewart, Project Assistant at Volcanoes Safaris, said the pangolin was an amazing discovery.
“It’s a very rare sighting by the camera traps. But also on a regular basis, we see the chimpanzees in the gorge. We see videos of them. We see monkeys and different other primate species. Even hippopotamus have been sighted on it. So it’s not just showing kind of amazing first sightings, but also what’s happening on a daily basis,” Stewart said.
To this, we joked: “The man behind the camera traps suffers from breathtaking views!”
Keeping privacy in mind
But while he enjoys the view, does the anticipation of capturing unseen wildlife through camera trapping pose a risk to human privacy, considering the presence of nearby villages, grazing activities and local communities engaging in daily tasks like gathering firewood or cutting grass for thatching their houses within Queen Elizabeth National Park?
Last year, Mongabay published a similar story: When wildlife surveillance tech ‘watches’ people. It reported that in 2017, a camera near Corbett Tiger Reserve in northern India captured an unintended image of a woman. Positioned to monitor passing tigers and elephants, the camera overlooked an area used by villagers lacking toilets. Unaware of the camera, the woman’s private moment became public when the person behind the cameras prided in sharing her pictures on local social media groups.
Ugandan conservationists may be updated on the professional use of camera footage from camera traps, but somehow the locals just need assurance, especially when the same technology is used in areas inhabited by people.
But Atukwatse questions why there should be human privacy in a protected area.
“There shouldn’t be any privacy in the protected area, especially when they are not accompanied by rangers or if they are not authorized,” he said.
Augustine Mudukoi, Project Coordinator at Volcano Safaris agreed.
“We initially had challenges with some movements within the park. People would sneak in from the communities, do their business and march out unchecked. When we started laying camera traps on most of the trails we alerted most of them and, by being aware of what cameras might capture, suspicious movements were reduced,” Mudukoi said.
Andrew Kato, a Volcano Safaris guide, appreciates the role of cameras in his work.
“It has enabled us to capture images and videos of animals that are active during the night or in our absence, such as leopards, pangolins, hyenas, hippos and even shy chimpanzees. These visuals not only inform our guiding experiences but are also utilized by our marketing department to showcase the diverse wildlife found within the park,” he said.
A technology that doesn’t threaten jobs
And it doesn’t look as if the technology will be affecting employment in the park.
“These cameras cannot place themselves in locations. They need monitoring, changing of battery and SD cards,” Mudukoi said.
“One challenge we face is losing cameras to elephants, as they sometimes knock them off trees or drag them through thickets and water bodies, resulting in lost footage,” he said.
Additionally, a recent incident involved the disappearance of SD cards, leading to speculation that certain cameras may have captured images of staff members’ relatives. Consequently, a keeper’s brother had to get rid of such sensitive information.
Ultimately, when used responsibly and with positive intentions, camera traps hold tremendous potential. As the camouflaged tools can be used for research, tourism and marketing purposes without alarming the way of the wildlife.
THREE QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
Why is it important that we monitor populations of animals such as lions and leopards in national parks like Queen Elizabeth in Uganda?
Are there other ways we can research animals in the wild without getting physically close to them or disturbing them?
Do you think it was fair that a woman’s private moment, captured by a camera trap, was shared on social media?
Summary: A new study finds that Eurasian jays exhibit episodic-like memory, a type of memory previously thought to be unique to humans. The birds were able to remember incidental details of past events, such as the visual characteristics of cups used in a food-hiding experiment.
This finding suggests that episodic memory may not be exclusive to humans and could aid jays in finding stored food.
Key Facts:
Eurasian jays demonstrate episodic-like memory by recalling incidental details of past events.
This ability is similar to “mental time travel” in humans, which allows us to consciously reimagine past experiences.
Episodic-like memory may help jays locate stored food.
Source: PLOS
Eurasian jays can remember incidental details of past events, which is characteristic of episodic memory in humans, according to a study published May 15, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by James Davies of the University of Cambridge, UK and colleagues.
When remembering events, humans have the ability of “mental time travel,” consciously reimagining past experiences and potentially recalling details that seemed unimportant at the time. Some researchers have suggested that this “episodic memory” is unique to humans.
Despite the changed positions of the cups and the added time delay, the birds still correctly identified the baited cup according to their visual characteristics 70% of the time. Credit: Neuroscience News
In this study, Davies and colleagues ran a memory experiment to test for episodic-like memory in seven Eurasian jays, birds that excel at remembering the location of stored food.
In the experiment, the birds watched food get placed beneath one cup in a line of four identical cups and were then rewarded for correctly selecting the baited cup.
Over several trials, the birds were trained to identify the correct cup by remembering its position in line. Then, at test, the jays were given an unexpected memory assessment: they watched food get placed beneath one of the cups, which now all had unique visual characteristics, but they were then separated from the cups for 10 minutes while the cups were relocated and rearranged.
Despite the changed positions of the cups and the added time delay, the birds still correctly identified the baited cup according to their visual characteristics 70% of the time.
These results suggest that even though visual differences between the cups were unimportant during training, the birds were able to notice those differences at test and recall them later, similar to episodic memory in humans.
This study indicates that episodic-like memory might aid jays in finding food stores, and the researchers suggest that future studies might investigate whether the birds can perform similar feats of memory in other non-food-related scenarios.
The authors add: “As the jays were able to remember details that held no specific value or relevance at the time that the memory was created, this suggests that they are able to record, recall, and access incidental information within a remembered event. This is an ability that characterises the type of human memory through which we mentally ‘relive’ past events (or episodes), known as ‘episodic’ memory.”
The fiancée of Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff told Fox News Digital following a plant-based diet has been her secret to looking — and feeling — her best in swimwear.
Christen Harper was photographed in Portugal for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s 2024 issue.
“I’m a longtime animal lover,” said the 30-year-old. “I never wanted to do anything that would hurt them. That’s what initially made me make the switch to a more plant-based lifestyle.
“I live in California, the mecca for that kind of eating,” she chuckled. “So, it hasn’t been too hard. But it’s a choice I made to just eat vegetables. … For me, it was an easy choice, and it makes me feel so good. I feel like I’m glowing from the inside out just eating that type of food. … And I have a fun time trying to come up with more plant-forward recipes.”
Christen Harper walks the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Shows runway during Miami Swim Week at W Hotel Miami Beach July 7, 2023, in Miami Beach, Fla.
The new issue of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit was published May 17 with seven covers. For her spread, Harper insisted she didn’t have to take on a new diet to get in shape. Her usual routine had given her plenty of confidence. But stocking up on fruits and veggies over animal products hasn’t always been easy, she admitted.
Christen Harper, a Southern California native, was discovered by SI through the Swim Search open casting call in 2021.
“I’m a quarter Japanese, so I grew up eating so much Japanese food, which included a lot of sushi,” said Harper. “For me, that was the hardest part, to kind of let that go. It has been so much a part of my childhood and growing up. But there are so many good plant-based alternatives these days. I love a tofu roll or an avocado roll. You can get the same feeling and still go to a sushi bar.
Christen Harper said Japanese food, specifically sushi, is one of her guilty pleasures.
“I realized the most important part about food is sharing the experience with the people you’re with,” she shared. “It doesn’t matter what you’re eating as long as you feel like you’re a part of the experience. So, I still love going to sushi bars and eating delicious Japanese food. I just pick veggie options. … Everything else has been pretty easy.”
Harper said those who are curious have plenty of options these days to savor plant-based dishes without compromising on taste.
Christen Harper is an avid follower of the plant-based lifestyle.
“That’s the first cardinal rule. You have to go out and do whatever it is you want to do,” said Harper. “If you like dining out with friends and going to restaurants, don’t miss out on that. It doesn’t have to be so black and white.
“First, you can try going plant-based at home. You can start slow, adding a few plant-forward ingredients to your meals or trying a new plant-forward recipe. Remember, you’re choosing to feed your body. Have fun with it. And, personally, that was the most fun thing about going plant-based — dining out at restaurants.
Christen Harper began modeling more than a decade ago.
“Many restaurants these days have plant-based options,” Harper noted. “But if you notice that the menu doesn’t show a lot of options, I’ll ask the server to have the chef come up with a fun plant-based dish. It allows the chef to be creative or try a recipe they don’t normally get a chance to make, just for you. It might just be a bunch of different veggie sides put together, but usually, they love getting that opportunity to make something unique. And it’s fun to try something different, something you wouldn’t usually order.
Christen Harper launched a collab of bikinis last year with B Swim.
“But almost everything can be turned more plant-based,” Harper added. “Even Taco Bell. One of my favorite things there is swapping out the meat for beans. I can get a delicious taco or Crunchwrap Supreme anywhere just the way I like it. And sometimes going plant-based is as simple as making a little switch from meat to beans, or meat to veggies. It’s about getting a little creative and making it fun and delicious.”
When it comes to comfort food, Taco Bell is one of Christen Harper’s go-tos.
Harper said when she’s not hitting the waves at the beach, she likes to try new recipes at home.
“My go-to is always pasta,” said Harper. “I love to make a spicy rigatoni with a homemade sauce that’s all plant-based. I love to make soups and rice bowls with fresh seasonal veggies. I am not the best cook, but I’m learning to get better. Right now, I’m doing a sourdough baking experiment. That’s my next journey. I’ll let you know how that goes.”
Harper said posing for the magazine has given her a body confidence boost.
Christen Harper said being part of SI Swimsuit has given her a boost of confidence.
“It’s really hard to be a woman,” she said. “You feel constantly judged, and you’re often comparing yourself. It was partly Sports Illustrated that gave me the confidence to be me. It was wonderful to flip through the pages and see women who looked like me. We know now how important it is to see yourself represented in the media. … And this magazine loves you no matter what you look like or how you show up. They love you for you. … It’s the biggest bubble of empowerment.”
Christen Harper regularly volunteers with local organizations.
“I’ve been a model since I was 9 years old,” Harper reflected. “For about 15 years of my life, I was going through the modeling industry, which was a little stricter and a little less inclusive. They needed you to fit in a specific sample. Sometimes my body would fluctuate, and I wouldn’t be that same size anymore. You would get ridiculed by agents.
“But Sports Illustrated broke down those walls. They made the industry more inclusive, allowing everybody to feel important and included. That was such a shift for me, to realize that it’s OK to be different. It’s OK to be a little curvier. We can still celebrate ourselves and what we bring to the table”
Christen Harper co-won the annual Swim Search and was named co-Rookie of the Year in 2022.
Harper said Goff has been her biggest cheerleader in trying out for SI Swimsuit. The pair met on Raya, a dating app favored by celebrities.
The couple was first linked in 2019. They announced their engagement in June 2022.
From left: Rob Gronkowski, Camille Kostek, Jared Goff and Christen Harper attend as Sports Illustrated Swimsuit celebrates the launch of the 2022 Issue and Debut of Pay With Change at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood May 21, 2022, in Hollywood, Fla.
“I went through the Swim Search process, which included me posting a video of myself out there in hopes I would get chosen for the magazine,” said Harper. “I was so nervous. I was worried about what people would think about me.
“He was like, ‘You’ve got to go for it. Who cares if you don’t get it? Just put yourself out there.’ And he’s been there for me throughout this entire experience. I’m just so lucky because he cheers me on in every aspect of my life, whether I’m in a bikini or anything else. During the season, I get to cheer him on and then, during the off-season, he cheers me on.
Jared Goff and Christen Harper attend the 2024 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue launch party at Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square May 16, 2024, in New York City.
“When I first got into SI, he was so pumped,” said Harper. “We got a big poster … and he put it right up in his office. He does his work and looks at my poster. My first calendar, which was untouched, is still all over his office. He’s been so supportive and so happy for me. He knew how big of a dream it was for me.”
The Southern California native was a co-winner in the 2021 Swim Search, and she was named co-Rookie of the Year with Katie Austin following their 2022 issue appearance. She was featured in the 2023 issue.
Exposing the Big Game 