Beaver Buddies

These fuzzy vegan chonkers are full of personality and vital to the ongoing health and diversity of forests and waterways. Their forestry and dam building efforts filter water, create wetlands, and make room for the next-in-line trees and bushes. All of that encourages more types of animals to come.

Though the beaver in this picture was so chill that it popped up to check out my kayak, most of the time the only notice of a beaver is the sound of its big flat tail slapping the water in warning as it dives to be alone.

Bonch o' Beaver Facts

• 2 to 4 babies (kits) each year
• live in family colonies until at least 2 years old
• grow to 3 ft long and 40 lbs on average
• orange teeth because of iron in the enamel covering
• teeth never stop growing
• hold breath 15 minutes underwater
• webbed feet help them swim up to 8 km/h
• vegan diet includes bark as well as water plants like lily pads and cattails
• tireless builders, they seem motivated to stop the sound of running water
• see-through eyelids help them see underwater
• closeable nostrils and ears keep water out, as well as lips behind their teeth!
• very important in the fur trade that was key in founding Canada
• build enormous dams that can be many meters tall — the longest found is 850 m, and it's right here in Canada!
• live up to 12 years in nature
• home is a lodge pile of sticks and mud that can keep at 10°C even in the coldest –40°C of winter
• like scritches, just like a cat

I have a new book!

By Claire Eamer

I HAVE A NEW BOOK COMING OUT JUNE 1!!!

(Oops. Did I shout? Sorry. It’s just that the birth of a new book is really quite exciting.)

Actually, let me tell you a bit about the book – and then I’ll move on to the “exciting.”

It’s called Extremely Gross Animals: Stinky, Slimy and Strange Animal Adaptations, published by my good friends at Kids Can Press. And it’s disgusting, in the best of all possible ways!

Note the tasteful use of both snot-green and puke-green on the book cover.

For example, did you know that baby elephants eat their mothers’ poop? And it’s good for them. Or that horned lizards shoot blood out of their eyes? (Okay, it’s from glands right near their eyes, but the effect is pretty much the same.) Or that giraffes can stick their tongues up their noses? And do!

The book has that and more – and I find it all fascinating. In fact, behaviour that looks icky at first glance usually turns out to be an unexpected but extremely useful way for an animal to survive and prosper. You can read all about it in my new book (did I mention that it’s called Extremely Gross Animals?) on June 1.

But back to the “exciting” bit….

A book isn't born either painlessly or quickly. It has a long, long gestation period. An elephant goes from fertilized egg to newborn baby in about 645 days, or about 21.5 months. Compared to a book, that’s downright speedy.

I checked back through my emails and found that I first mentioned the idea of Extremely Gross Animals to my editor at the end of August 2017. That means it will have had a gestion period of 44 months by the time it’s released to the world – more than twice the time it takes to produce an elephant. And all that for a book that’s just 40 pages long.

So what takes so long? Here’s a summary, based on my overflowing email archive (which I really should prune):

August 31, 2017: I mention in an email “…an old book idea I tinkered with a bit – gross and disgusting animals. I’m sure the world’s 8 to 12 year olds need this book!” My editor agreed, so we both started looking through lists of existing books to see if anyone had already written this book.

September 17, 2017: I submit a preliminary proposal for the book, designed not to duplicate any of the books we found in our search. The proposal bounces back and forth between me and the editor for a few months as we refine it.

January 9, 2018: I submit a full proposal to Kids Can Press (KCP): a detailed outline of the book, an explanation of the rationale behind it, a review of similar or competing titles, and suggestions about how it fits into the curriculum of several different school systems.

March 8, 2018: The KCP editorial board approves going ahead with the proposal, as long as there are enough good, kid-friendly photos of the animals. (There are.)

Long pause filled with personnel changes at KCP, publication schedule planning, and other mysterious goings-on. In other words, my proposal seems to have disappeared into a black hole.

November 8, 2018: After another editorial board meeting, input from the sales department, and more mysterious publisher activity, I’m told the book is a go. Yay!?! But that doesn’t mean the book is underway yet. I still don’t have a contract.

January 17, 2019: I receive a contract proposal from KCP. Then we (KCP, my literary consultant, and I) negotiate.

February 15, 2019: I have a contract with deadlines, royalty rates, lots and lots of fine print – and the book is officially underway! (At this point, of course, I have been researching my chosen animals for some time. But nothing’s official until it’s signed-official.)

…writing…researching…reorganizing…writing…more researching...more writing....

May 6, 2019: I submit the first draft of Extremely Gross Animals (although it doesn’t have that title yet).

May 28, 2019: Draft manuscript returned with editor’s comments.

June 6, 2019: I submit the second draft, along with a draft glossary and list of scientific names for some animals. A few days later, it starts circulating around the editorial department at KCP.

July 14, 2019: I receive editor’s comments on the second draft of the manuscript. I return the manuscript with a few changes a couple of days later, and then go on to work on the back matter, including the index word list, glossary, etc.

August 25, 2019: I receive a revised publication schedule from the publisher. The book has been moved forward to Spring 2021 publication instead of Fall 2021 (which still seems like a long way off). At this point, the designer, photo researcher, and printers get involved, with each stage checked by multiple people.

September 19, 2019: I receive the final edited version of the manuscript, along with the edited version of the end matter we’ve all been working on. Now we make decisions, such as figuring out which animals need to be identified by scientific name and how we do that without confusing the reader.

November 29, 2019: I receive the manuscript with the copy editor’s comments. These are usually the nitpicky bits related to the publisher’s house style, but it's also a chance for a fresh set of eyes to spot where something isn’t as clear as it should be. By this time, both the editor and I have read the manuscript so many times that we can’t reliably pick those moments out. So – yet a few more changes. At this point, I’m well over two years into this book.

April 29, 2020: The photo research is almost complete. The editor checks with me about a few of the photos – mainly whether they match the scientific information in the book.

May 7, 2020: I receive the first set pages (illustrated and laid out as they’ll appear in the book). My job is to check the text one more time, check all the photos to make sure they are scientifically accurate, and add any little touches that might seem necessary (for example, size references where it’s not clear how big or small the animal is). Comment from the editor: “And my advice is to do your review well before or well after eating -- after seeing the photos of the horsehair worms, I won't be eating spaghettini for quite a while.”

August 27, 2020: I receive a PDF file of the first complete colour version of the interior pages of the book. So pretty! And one more chance to catch problems. There aren’t many, but I send back my list of tweaks the next day.

September 9, 2020: I receive a draft of the cover copy (the text on the book’s back cover) for review.

September 22, 2020: I get my first look at the cover. Wow!

November 2, 2020: The final title is confirmed –

Author's delight -- a boxful of beautiful books!

Extremely Gross Animals: Stinky, Slimy and Strange Animal Adaptations – and I have official permission to start talking about the book.

And the rest is a matter of waiting to meet my book in person, face to …er…cover. That happened April 13 (less than four years after I started thinking about it), when my box of author's copies arrived. The rest of you will have to wait a few more weeks.

But you can pre-order the book at your local bookstore or online. It's called Extremely Gross Animals: Stinky, Slimy and Strange Animal Adaptations. Or did I already mention that?

Blanding's Turtle

 by Jan Thornhill

[Editor's note: our Jan Thornhill knows turtles. Several times, she has written for Sci/Why blog about turtles. You can read her short articles at this link. Today's short note is based on her recent Facebook post.]

I helped the first Blanding's Turtle of the spring cross our road today! 

Like snapping turtles, Blanding's turtles are slow to sexually mature at about 14-25 years of age. But they can reproduce until they are at least 75 years old. [note: This age is not old for some kinds of turtle or tortoise. There are Galapagos tortoises still reproducing at over a hundred years old!]

Female Blanding's turtles do long-distance overland nesting migrations of over 10 kilometres (over 6.2 miles). They're listed as a threatened species in Ontario.

 

My friend Marc says this photo shows the turtle is pleased. And there I was thinking she was giving me the stink eye! But Marc insists there's a slight smile and a twinkle in the turtle's eye.

 

Previously, Jan wrote this note that's worth repeating:

Help a Turtle Cross a Road

Pull over to a safe spot before getting out of your car. If it's any species other than a snapping turtle, use two hands to carry it in the direction it was travelling. Turtles often urinate when picked up. Don’t let this startle you or you might drop it! NEVER pick a turtle up by its tail—you could damage its spinal cord.

Snapping turtles have long necks that can easily stretch half the length of their carapace and they can also inflict a nasty bite or gouge you with their claws, so it's best not to pick them up. Instead, try using a stick or a shovel to coax them across the road. A snapping turtle will also sometimes latch onto a stick held near its mouth, making it easy to drag it across the road.

 

 

 

Looking on the bright side, with brain-altering parasites

 by Anne Munier

It’s been a tough year for many of us. Sometimes looking on the bright side and feeling grateful for all that we have helps. Other times, it can be even more helpful to look on the gruesome side, and be grateful that we are NOT infected with brain-manipulating parasites who take over our bodies and control our behaviour. In that vein, let’s take a moment to explore just how disturbing nature can be….

Zombie Ants

We’ll start in the humid tropics of Brazil, where a carpenter ant is living its best life with thousands of its buddies, foraging and defending the colony. No one would even notice the microscopic fungal spore that lands on it. But spores are like mini seeds, and this one penetrates the ant’s body and starts to grow inside. First the fungus feeds on the ant’s insides, and then it takes over the ant’s behaviour, compelling it to wander away from its colony, which is something that ants never do. The possessed ant climbs up a nearby plant, and clamps on with its jaws. At this point is it more ant or more fungus? Either way, the fungus is clearly in control. After finishing eating the insides of the slowly dying ant, it sends a stalk up through the back of the animal’s head. By making the ant climb up the plant, the fungus is now at a good height to spread its spores. They float out on the breeze, perhaps to infect the poor ant’s relatives, and the cycle starts anew.

 

A zombie ant, in the final stages of serving its fungal master - Photo Credit Bernard Dupont

A game of cat and mouse

Toxoplasmosis is a tiny parasite that infects mammals and birds around the world, but it’s mice that really need to watch out. When the parasite completes the life stage that takes place inside a mouse’s brain, it needs to make its way into cat intestines in order to reproduce. How can this microscopic parasite accomplish that? By encouraging its mouse host to be eaten by a cat! Under the parasite’s influence, mice stop being their usual fearful, cautious selves and start exploring more. They actually become attracted to the smell of cat urine (I know!!). This really increases the chances that a cat and infected mouse will find each other- good news for the cat, bad news for the mouse, and great news for the toxoplasmosis!

 

A parasite that makes mice love cats?

Baby birds taking over the nest

Not all parasites are tiny, and they don’t necessarily need to get into an animal’s brain in order to manipulate them. Some birds, like cuckoos or brown-headed cowbirds, are “brood parasites”; they’ve figured out that sneaking their eggs into the nests of other birds saves them a lot of time and energy on the parenting front. The unwitting foster parents may be suspicious, but very often they accept the egg and raise the chick as their own. The imposters tend to be the first to hatch, beg the loudest, hog most of the food, and grow the most quickly. In the case of some cuckoos things can get really nasty- the cuckoo chick hatches before the others and actually hauls the other eggs out of the nest (effectively killing its foster siblings, and ensuring that it gets all of the parents’ care). These darling babies can grow several times larger than their run-down caregivers, all while intently demanding regular feedings.

Mama warbler feeding her insatiable foster chick, the common cuckoo- Photo credit: Harald Olsen

 

Is anyone else wondering whether we humans could have parasites that, unbeknownst to us, are manipulating our behaviour? Quite possibly! Initial research suggests that people exposed to the flu virus become more social- going to more parties and visiting more friends. No strong conclusions have been reached yet, but some researchers suspect that the virus is influencing its human host’s behaviour in order to expose it to as many people (and potential new hosts!) as possible.

Love ‘em, hate ‘em or just feel grossed out by parasites, but it’s hard not to be impressed by some of the tricks that they’ve come up with. Now doesn’t life seem a bit better, knowing that we’re (most likely) not possessed by parasites controlling our thoughts, actions, and taking over our very being?