Episode 519 - Human-Animal-Planet News

June 24, 2020 / Podcasts / Leave a comment

Rhinella marina

This week’s podcast presents a brief update of human-animal-planet news. It serves as a reminder that, regardless what’s going on in our human worlds, there a more complex human-animal-planet one out there. While some of the animals involved are a on the scary side, all of them are fascinating. They’re also quite resourceful.

For those who want to know more about the human-animal-planet interactions described in the podcast, here are some additional sources of information:

This is a typical mass media report about the hybrid ticks creating problems in areas of Russian already coping with COVID-19.

These reports of the effects of Rhinella marina from the University of Florida Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and the local media emphasize some similar and some different concerns regarding the invasive toad species.

And in keeping with my decades long interest in the human-orchestrated and natural evolution of the fox in the human-animal-planet world, 3 fox-related articles. First is a summation of what a team of Russian scientists discovered about the effects of domestication during their decades of work with farm foxes. As I’ve noted elsewhere, this should be required reading of anyone interested in dog breeding, but also breeding any animal. Especially those who focus on just one quality, size, eye or coat color hair, or some other unique feature.

Last but not least, an article in the general science media about a study of urban vs wild fox skull size as an indicator of degree of self-domestication in urban foxes. And a link to the original study.