Natural Selections
159 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 11 ratingsConversations about the natural world with Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley, from member-supported North Country Public Radio.
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Episodes
Natural Selections: Raven vs. Crow, what's the difference?
October 28, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.42 MB(Oct 28, 2021) Ravens were once a rarity in the North Country, but now they are becoming a common sight. They have a similar appearance to crows, but if you see the two birds together the difference is fairly obvious. Curt Stager and Martha Foley discuss ravens and crows on Natural Selections.
Natural Selections: "Couch potato" bass evolving in response to human predation
October 21, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 7.18 MB(Oct 21, 2021) The pressure to keep billions of humans fed can have a transformative impact on amimal populations. Overharvesting that targets the largest animals can result in reduction of the average size of species, as seen in Caribbean conch snails. And sport-fishing pressure on large mouth bass can winnow out the most agressive in the gene pool, resulting in a "lazier," more passive remnant population. Martha Foley and Curt Stager talk about the human factor in animal evolution.
Natural Selections: Get to know your closet nemesis, the clothes moth
October 14, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 7.7 MB(Oct 14, 2021) Keratin, the substance wool, hair, and feathers are made from, makes a pretty thin diet, but the clothes moth has been dogging humanity's closets and drawers for hundreds of years, unravelling the work of generations of knitters and weavers to feed its larvae.
Natural Selections: For cats, the comfort zone is shaped like a box
October 07, 2021 04:00 - 4 minutes - 6.59 MB(Oct 7, 2021) Of all the places a cat can hang out, why do do many of them want to hang out in boxes? According to researchers, cats that spend time in close confines are measurably less stressed than those remaining in the open. As Curt Stager tells Martha Foley, it's not just house cats who feel this way.
Natural Selections: How nature journals put the history in natural history
September 30, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 8.02 MB(Sep 30, 2021) Martha Foley has never succeeded in keeping a nature journal long-term, but Curt Stager finds them invaluable in his work. He records his observations on paper, but also finds great data through researching the journals of past observers, from Samuel de Champlain to Thomas Jefferson, to ordinary little-known North Country folk. His hint - always put it on paper. Whatever became of all that stuff on your floppy diskettes?
Natural Selections: Bats can sing, too!
September 23, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 7.21 MB(Sep 23, 2021) Humans, birds, and whales are not the only creatures who can sing. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager discuss recent research that uncovered bats also use learned songs to communicate.
Natural Selections: Just how individual are animals?
September 16, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 6.99 MB(Sep 16, 2021) We tend to think that dogs do this, and that cats do that. We think animal species have a recognizable set of behaviors that define the nature of their kind. But what about individual animals? Does each have something we could understand as a unique personality?
More fish: good for the flowers, bad for the snakes
September 09, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 7.15 MB(Sep 9, 2021) The complex web of species interaction is full of odd associations. Stocking a lake with fish cuts down on dragonflies, which helps pollinators, which helps the flowers bloom. Or it can cut down on amphibians such as newts, which is bad for garter snakes. Invasive flowering purple loosestrife is good for insects and birds that feed on them, but hard on plankton, which is at the bottom of the food chain for everything. Martha Foley and Curt Stager look an unintended consequence...
Really, really big bugs (and some tiny ones, too)
September 02, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 7.45 MB(Sep 2, 2021) Martha Foley? - not a fan of bugs. And Curt Stager took a course on them to steady his own reactions. The Natural Selections team looks at the outliers on the spectrum, the largest and smallest of critters with too many legs. New Zealand's weta makes a real handful. The fairy fly is nearly invisible. Some prehistoric dragonflies were big enough to make off with the cat.
Natural Selections: The evolution of breathing
August 26, 2021 04:00 - 6 minutes - 5.68 MB(Aug 26, 2021) All creatures breathe in some fashion, but how the job gets done has changed from fish to amphibian to reptile to mammal. Curt Stager and Martha Foley chart the evolution of animal respiration.
Natural Selections: Why pigeons feel at home in the city
August 19, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.91 MB(Aug 19, 2021) The ubiquitous bird of cities and towns was designed for a different environment. The pigeon's distinctive style of flight is adapted for maneuverability in tight places - near vertical takeoffs and quick changes of direction. This adaptation to cliff and mountainside environments serves them well among our urban cliff dwellings. Curt Stager and Martha Foley discuss.
Natural Selections: Pigeons are doves, high-rises are cliffs
August 12, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.71 MB(Aug 12, 2021) Pigeons and doves, both domestic and feral, are the same species. Today's urban environment mimics their original favored habitat, seaside cliffs in Europe and Asia. Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss this commonest bird companion in densely settled areas.
Northern Flicker, the anteater of the woodpecker family
August 05, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.03 MB(Aug 5, 2021) The Northern Flicker is one of the most recognizable birds. This distinctly-marked member of the woodpecker family, instead of browsing wood for their food like their relatives, digs for food in the ground. Martha Foley and Curt Stager explore its habits.
Natural Selections: Why manatees are related to elephants, and whales are related to deer
July 29, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5 MB(Jul 29, 2021) Animals that resemble each other may not be closely related. Sometimes the setting shapes their bodies more than their ancestry. Manatees may look like whales or walruses, but that is only because they adapted to the marine environment in a similar way. Martha Foley and Curt stager talk about convergent evolution.
The manatee: like the mermaid, its kin live on land
July 22, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.52 MB(Jul 22, 2021) The big marine herbivore, the manatee, is thought by some to be the origin of mermaid legends, but it's not closely related to humankind or even to whales and other marine mammals.
Natural Selections: Can ADK lake trout survive climate change?
July 15, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.81 MB(Jul 15, 2021) Lake trout require a lot of cold, oxygenated water to survive. Lakes in the Adirondacks of upstate New York are at the southern edge of their natural range. Although about 100 Adirondack lakes and ponds are still home to lake trout, even a small increase in temperature could sharply cut that number.
Natural Selections: The shorter winged Cliff Swallows prevail
July 08, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.96 MB(Jul 8, 2021) Researchers have found that variations in the wingspan of cliff swallows has a measurable impact on their survival in a human-dominated environment.
Natural Selections: Turns out bullheads ('trash fish') are really good parents
July 01, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.91 MB(Jul 1, 2021)
Natural Selections: Why does hair just keep growing?
June 17, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.13 MB(Jun 17, 2021)
Natural Selections: The curious history of Malaria in the U.S.
June 03, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.1 MB(Jun 3, 2021)
Natural Selections: Where do coral reefs get their food supply?
May 27, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.85 MB(May 27, 2021) A coral reef is kind of like Manhattan, a huge number of mouths to feed in a packed parcel of real estate. A reef doesn't have upstate farms to keep them all fed. So how do they get by?
Natural Selections: The many virtues of the silk-making insect
May 20, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.06 MB(May 20, 2021)
Natural Selections: The tip-toe ballet of the walking deer
May 13, 2021 04:00 - 4 minutes - 4.45 MB(May 13, 2021) Few creatures move with more grace than deer. Martha Foley compares them to ballerinas. Curt Stager says there's a reason for that. As ballerinas often do, deer walk on their tip-toes.
Natural Selections - Your body is smart, it knows when you need water. But how?
April 22, 2021 04:00 - 6 minutes - 6.02 MB(Apr 22, 2021)
Every rock tells a story
April 15, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.03 MB(Apr 15, 2021) Curt Stager has his students start the semester by picking out a "pet rock." At the end of term, they have to tell the story of that rock - what it is, what it's made of, and what happened to shape it it over the ages.
Natural Selections: All the buzz about plants and sweet nectar
April 08, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.39 MB(Apr 8, 2021)
Natural Selections: Deer up close and personal
April 01, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5 MB(Apr 1, 2021)
Natural Selections: How high? How fast? How far? The remarkable records of bird flight
March 25, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.17 MB(Mar 25, 2021)
The science behind maple syrup
March 18, 2021 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.8 MB(Mar 18, 2021) You can get the sugar out of a lot of trees, but there's something special about the sugar maple. Its trunk is highly efficient at storing and moving sap. That's in part because the sap is stored throughout the trunk, rather then down in the roots, as with most trees in winter. Martha Foley and Curt Stager look at that other "sweet science," the one behind our favorite breakfast condiment.
The life-sustaining space capsules we know simply as "eggs"
March 11, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 5.48 MB(Mar 11, 2021)
Glitches? Could be gremlins, could be cosmic rays
March 04, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 4.84 MB(Mar 4, 2021) Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager discuss cosmic rays. While many people may think cosmic rays only affect astronauts or satellites - objects in space - computers and other electronic equipment on Earth can be affected, too.
Making planet earth from a ball of mud and more miracles of the muskrat
February 25, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 4.73 MB(Feb 25, 2021)
Chewing underwater and the many feats of the magnificent muskrat
February 18, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 4.87 MB(Feb 18, 2021)
Animals that make their living outside the box
February 11, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 5.52 MB(Feb 11, 2021) In general, plants make food from sunlight, and animals fuel themselves by "burning" oxygen. But some animals think outside the box. Curt Stager and Martha Foley look at a photosynthetic slug that hijacks the genetic machinery of the algae in its diet, and at a jellyfish that needs no oxygen, burning the alternative fuels of hydrogen and sulfur.
Not all mammals hibernate. How do they survive a cold winter?
February 04, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 4.72 MB(Feb 4, 2021) "In the case of the voles and the shrews, they'll actually shrink their total body mass down, so there's less body to have to be fed."
How you and me and flowers and bees get charged up (with static electricity)
January 28, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 4.67 MB(Jan 28, 2021) It's the reason opposites attract and doorknobs shock, why lightning strikes, and the way bumblebees find the sweet spot in flowers. Whenever an object has more or fewer electrons than its neighbor, there is the potential for static discharge. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about the mysterious and hair-raising ways of static electricity.
What is a flame?
January 21, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 4.85 MB(Jan 21, 2021) What is a flame? Why is it shaped like that? How does it keep going? Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager answer some burning questions about rapid oxidation.
Why is the sky blue?, take 2
January 14, 2021 05:00 - 5 minutes - 2.74 MB(Jan 14, 2021) Dr. Curt Stager tries once again to answer the classic child's question. It is a poser that was worthy of Einstein's time, who eventually came up with the best answer. But it's complicated. And when the sky isn't blue, why not? What's up with that? Martha Foley wants to know.
The science of snow
January 07, 2021 05:00 - 4 minutes - 2.27 MB(Jan 7, 2021) The differing qualities of snow can determine the safety of structures, the back strain of shovelers and the danger of avalanche. Scientists look at how fast it falls, how it forms in the air, and whether or not it clumps into fat flakes to determine what impact it will have on those of us below. Every snowflake is unique, and so is every snowfall.
Is any part of the body original equipment?
December 31, 2020 05:00 - 5 minutes - 2.36 MB(Dec 31, 2020) Since our bodies replace most cells over a period of a few years, it raises the question "Is any part of us original equipment?" According to Curt Stager and Martha Foley, the answer is "Yes." Parts of the eyes and teeth, as well as many nerve and (bad news for dieters) fat cells last a lifetime.
Flying squirrels glide through winter nights, hunting lichen
December 24, 2020 05:00 - 5 minutes - 2.36 MB(Dec 24, 2020) Rarely seen during the day, flying squirrels don't actually fly, but use flaps of skin that connect their fore and hind legs that enable them to glide up to a hundred feet, between trees and from tree to ground.
Why so many snowy owls all of a sudden?
December 10, 2020 05:00 - 4 minutes - 2.03 MB(Dec 10, 2020) Snowy owls are normally a rare sight in North Country. Their usual range is in the Arctic north. But a few years ago, a large number were seen all across the region. Martha Foley asked Dr. Curt Stager why that has happened.
Natural Selections: How do turtles survive a winter underwater?
December 03, 2020 05:00 - 4 minutes - 2.26 MB(Dec 3, 2020) Unlike frogs, turtles don't hibernate through the winter. In fact, sometimes you can see snappers and other species moving around under the ice. While their metabolism runs at very low ebb in the cold, they remain alert to changes in light and temperature that signal the coming spring. How do they survive without oxygen? As Paul Smith's College biologist Curt Stager tells Martha Foley, they get energy from their body tissues, and their shells neutralize the resulting lactic ac...
Bacteria plus iron equals ochre, the prehistoric paint
November 26, 2020 05:00 - 4 minutes - 2.23 MB(Nov 26, 2020) Martha Foley and Curt Stager talk about ochre. It’s more than just a color in the Crayola box.
The beehive is more of a police state than a family
November 19, 2020 05:00 - 5 minutes - 2.69 MB(Nov 19, 2020) In the second in our series about the biological marketplace, Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager look into the beehive. Although some worker bees might try to "cheat" and introduce their own eggs into the genetic pool of the hive, other workers will detect and destroy them. The queen presides over a society that shares her DNA, but it is run more like a police state than a family.
Symbiotic relatonships drive survival in the "biological marketplace"
November 12, 2020 05:00 - 5 minutes - 2.39 MB(Nov 12, 2020) Symbiotes are species that must collaborate with another to survive. But some partners are more equal than others. Martha Foley and Curt Stager talk about how organisms monitor cheaters in symbiotic relationships. This is the first of two conversations about the biological marketplace.
What's the difference between antlers and horns?
November 05, 2020 05:00 - 5 minutes - 2.35 MB(Nov 5, 2020) Horns and antlers are more than different variations on animal head gear. Antlers are temporary and contain no actual bone. Horns are for keeps. Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss pointy-headed creatures.