The latest scientific discoveries in haiku form – sciku!
Hungarian men
hungering for a snack should
hunger no more – bugs!
A questionnaire of consumers in Hungary found that almost 60% of respondents were aware of eating insects as an alternative to meat, however high food neophobia is still a barrier for actually consuming insects. Men were more likely to consider trying insects than women, but a ‘willingness to eat insect-based food products could be increased by giving more information to consumers’. Gere et al, 2017.
How safe the trader?
The agricultural costs
of invasive pests
Invasive pest species threaten global agriculture and can devastate crops. A study of almost 1,300 agricultural invasive species and 124 countries suggests that whilst the biggest agricultural producers (USA and China) “could experience the greatest absolute costs from further species invasion”, their trade patterns mean they are also the greatest potential source of invasive species and so represent the greatest threat to the rest of the world. In contrast, the countries most vulnerable to invasive species were found to be from Sub-Saharan Africa. Paini et al, 2017.
Complete locked-in state.
Infra-red plus oxygen:
Communication!
Complete locked-in state is a condition where patients are suffering from motor paralysis but retain their mental processing abilities. The inability to control their own body movements has made communication with people suffering from this condition effectively impossible. However, by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy measure changes in frontocentral oxygenation patients were able to answer yes and no questions. Chaudhary et al, 2017.
Gregarious sharks:
Cohabiting siblings and
multiple lovers
Whilst the bluntnose sixgill shark is a widely known species of shark, little is known about its biology. A genetic study looking at polymorphic microsatellites revealed that individuals sampled at the same time and place were often siblings, whilst one female was found to have had up to 9 males fathering her offspring. Larson et al, 2011.
Holmes solves fauna crime.
The case of invading smelt –
Released with intent
‘Translocation of freshwater fish… to new localities where they do not already exist’ is illegal in Norway. Understanding how a population of smelt has rapidly appeared in Lake Storsjoen is therefore important for population management. By using microsatellite markers Hagenlund et al (2015) were able to determine that it is likely that a large number of individuals were translocated at one time, potentially to create a population of large-sized trout, a species that feeds on smelt and is popular for fishing.
Road-safety crucial:
Engine noises distract from
predator odours.
Noise pollution can have a number of effects on wild animals. Morris-Drake et al (2016) found that road noises meant that dwarf mongooses were slower to detect a predator odour and did not increase vigilance in response to the odour (whilst mongooses exposed to normal ambient noise found the odour faster and showed increased vigilance).
Unhappy Whio –
Your populations estranged,
split by the Cook strait.
The rare blue duck (named the Whio in Maori after the male call) is found on the North and South islands of New Zealand. The genetics suggest that the populations on the two islands diverged in the late Pleistocene, with very limited gene flow since. The current conservation strategy not to translocate individuals between the populations is therefore sensible so as to avoid potentially negative issues arising from crossing distant genetic pools. Grosser et al, 2016.
Lugging worker ants
use a celestial compass.
Is this a moonwalk?
Ants often need to walk backwards when dragging heavy food items to their nests, but how do they navigate when moving in reverse? Rather than relying on visual memories of terrestrial cues, ants instead use their celestial compass – this can be disrupted by presenting ants with a mirror image of the sun’s position in the sky. Schwarz et al, 2017.
Original research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.019
DNA reveals
ancient female dynasty
of Chaco Canyon.
Hereditary leadership is often an indicator of early political complexity and governance. Kennett et al (2017) used mitochondrial and nuclear DNA to identify an elite matriline that persisted between 800 and 1130 AD in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
Spreading fungal scourge
salamanders succumbing
perfect storm draws near.
Many of the world’s amphibians are under threat from a chytrid fungus (Bd), particularly in the tropics where it is driving many amphibian species towards extinction. More recently a sister species (Bs) has been observed in Western-European salamanders. Observations of a salamander population across two years following initial detection of Bs suggest a rapid population collapse with little recovery. Bs also has an increased transmission strategy over Bd and may behave as a “perfect storm” as it spreads through European populations of salamanders. Stegen et al, 2017.
When courting with song
do take turns with your neighbour –
Gentlemen hermits!
Male long-billed hermits (a sub-group of humming birds) form leks to attract mates by singing, but competing birds close together could overlap singing and confuse each other’s song. To counter this, males close together coordinate to alternate singing bouts whilst males further away from each other (and not at danger from vocal obscuration) overlap their songs. Araya-Salas et al, 2017.
Cherry blossoms dance
across the road like heat haze
on a summer day.
Ok, this is not technically a sciku but since haiku have traditionally had a strong association with cherry blossoms it felt right for The Sciku Project to feature a cherry blossom based haiku.