Wildlife
Plus: orca serve fishy looks, Christmas trees in peril, and polar bear poop offers up its secrets
Who can resist the Acadian charms of the Magdalen Islands? Apparently not the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, one of the world’s smallest and most endangered turtle species, which was found on the shores of Quebec’s Magdalen Islands last week for the first time ever.
While occasionally found in far-flung places such as the coast of Morocco, the species’ usual range is between the Gulf of Mexico and New England. Veterinarian Jean-Simon Richard believes that the turtle swam farther north than usual because it was attracted to the warming waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Richard was contacted last Saturday after someone found the turtle washed up on one of the archipelago’s shores. Attempts were made to revive the turtle but were unsuccessful. Richard believes the turtle likely died from hypothermia.
Kathleen Martin, executive director of the Canadian Sea Turtle Network, told The Canadian Press that the discovery means Canada will have to play an increasingly important role in the protection of endangered sea turtles as climate change creates warmer waters that bring unexpected marine animals to the country’s shores.
It’s been almost four decades, but it’s official: salmon hats are back in style. For orcas, that is. Werk, orca queens (but let’s hope that after a brief appearance in the early 2000’s, other 80’s trends like skinny jeans will remain firmly in the past). So, why were salmon headpieces on trend 37 years ago — and why the resurgence?
Scientists were baffled back in 1987 when they observed one female sporting the titular salmon on her head. Très chic, thought the rest of her pod, presumably, because within weeks they too donned the salmon corpse chapeau, à la mode. This fad only lasted a year before becoming rather passé, falling into the annals of Orca Vogue.
But fashion is nothing if not cycle, and this retro accessory is yet again all the rage. Scientists and whale watchers spotted au courant killer whales in Puget Sound wearing the chum couture, and have postulated that it may even be the original trendsetters bringing this vintage look back. But the mystery remains: why?
The leading hypothesis is this trend results from an abundance of chum salmon in the water — with too much salmon to eat now, maybe perching the fish on their heads is a good way to save a meal for later. It’s not clear yet whether this is actually the case; if the orcas don’t eat the fish after wearing it as a hat, it might be that salmon hats really could be evidence of killer whale fashion — and these whales are dressed to kill.
Fresh gingerbread, crisp peppermint, spicy cinnamon and the comforting aroma of pine needles — the classic smells of Christmas… for now.
As the climate continues to warm, with 2024 being the hottest year on record, researchers have discovered that balsam fir trees in New Brunswick are experiencing mortality risks due to drought and warmer summer temperatures. Published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, the paper identifies these stressors as the reason behind weakened balsam fir trees after using advanced machine learning models to examine dieback events in 2018 and 1986.
Renowned for its fragrant needles, balsam fir trees symbolize the province’s natural beauty while also acting as a cornerstone of New Brunswick’s forestry industry. But now, adjustments must be made in forest management practices, such as diversifying tree species, to safeguard the future of balsam fir tree health.
The proof is in the polar bear poop! Or, at least the clues are there. In the first study of its kind, researchers from Dalhousie University compared scat from captive and wild polar bears to determine what effect dietary changes could have on their microbiomes (a strong indicator of both nutritional and overall health).
As sea ice dwindles in the North — a roughly 18 per cent loss from 1982 to 2020 — polar bears will have to rely less on their traditional fatty diet of seals and more on a low-fat, high protein diet characteristic of food they find on land. This could lead to a higher risk of bears not meeting their nutritional needs and possibly starving.
With the help of the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, researchers analyzed scat from wild bear populations, both offshore — bears that live mostly on ice and prey on seals year-round — and onshore — bears that rely on seals during the winter, but survive off body fat stores during the ice-free season. Scat from captive bears were taken from four animals, named Henry, Ganuk, Inukshuk and Eddy, housed at the Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat in Cochrane, Alta. According to the university, the captive bears were fed “a higher protein mackerel-based diet, simulating the habitat and lifestyle changes wild bears may be forced to undertake should they become landlocked.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, their findings showed distinctly different gut microbiomes between the captive and wild populations, in line with the variations in their diet. Researchers hope these findings will help shed some light on the implications of climate change on this species’ access to food and, ultimately, their survival.
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