Ohh it was such an adventure to go to Safari West again and see the wildlife and talk to families about beavers and watch meteors from the deck and sleep with the sounds of exotic animals all around you. It was sobering to talk with Marie Martinez about their harrowing escape in the fire and how much business has rebounded in the year following it. Then humbling to receive another generous donation from the Safari West Foundation to support our work – splendid also to drive up past the wineries and sip a glass of Trefethen to celebrate Jon’s birthday.
But honestly, it’s nice to be home too.
This morning there’s an interview with Marcus Smith on BYU radio which I had thought of as only a campus thing, but turns out is actually a much larger deal. it also airs on Sirius which gives it a national audience. The producer originally contacted me after my article on the Center for Humans and Nature blog and I’m hopeful we’ll be able to talk about the value urban beavers can bring to the landscape.
BYU Radio is a talk radio station run by Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Operating at Sirius XM channel 143[1] (and in northern Utah on 89.1 MHz HD-2), it is known on-air as BYU Radio. The station features entertaining and informational talk programming,. Marcus Smith serves as radio services manager for BYU Broadcasting, where he oversees both BYU Radio and Classical 89. His most prominent public role, however, is as host of Thinking Aloud,
Meanwhile there’s plenty of outstanding business to tidy up. Especially this article which caught my eye last week and was sent by a couple of friends on the day it appeared in both the Atlantic and National Geographic.
Most Marine Mammals Are Missing One Mysterious Gene
Alarmingly, the adaptation may leave them more vulnerable to pesticides running into the sea.
Millions of years ago, ancient land-dwelling mammals returned to the sea. Their bodies became streamlined for swimming, articulated fingers turned into flippers and fins, hypnotic songs slowly filled the oceans—and, somewhere during the evolutionary process, the newly evolving marine mammals lost a particular gene called Paraoxonase 1, or PON1.
Normally, that story would be intriguing enough on its own. But in a strange twist of fate, PON1 also provides a crucial defense against a particularly nasty class of pesticides called organophosphates. PON1 obliterates pesticide byproducts in blood plasma, so terrestrial mammals with normal PON1 levels—including humans—can effectively deal with exposure.
Still commonly used in agriculture and frequently washed into the sea, organophosphates inhibit the central nervous system, causing paralysis and permanent brain damage. And so far, there are no signs that our marine kin have evolved a mechanism to defend themselves against these toxins in place of PON1.
You’re probably thinking, gosh that’s sad for whales and manatees but what does it have to do with beavers?
She and Clark are mulling over a different scenario, derived from a clue that comes from expression patterns within pinnipeds. Unlike sirenians and cetaceans, not all pinniped species studied have lost PON1 function. Instead, only the deepest diving—such as the Weddell seal—no longer have functioning PON1. The walrus and others that aren’t so inclined to visit the abyss still retain PON1. So, it could be that the gene’s deleted activity has something to do with the oxidative stress involved in diving, although that idea will need further testing.
In the shorter term, Clark and his colleagues are planning on sequencing beavers, muskrats, capybaras, and other aquatic and semi-aquatic critters.
“We need some species or populations that have lost PON1, and some that haven’t, so we can see what environmental factors differ between these species,” Meyer says.
For now, though, agricultural runoff tainting waters from Florida to California to Australia could be rich in pesticides that manatees, dolphins, and whales have no natural means to combat—and Clark and others suspect it could be playing a role in the multiple unusual mortality events plaguing the U.S. Southeast.
How deep is the abyss? I’m not sure whether it would apply to beavers, but they sure spend a great of time underwater, (very cold water), and that must had triggered some adaptions. The great irony of course is that every day beavers are working to build their organic filters that can reduce the toxins that flow to their brethren in the sea.
While theoretically exposing themselves to it more and more.
