Wild Things:
Life as We Know It
Bats' barotrauma, fallow deer, Tahitian vanilla, lucky dinosaurs
- By T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Jesse Rhodes, Abigail Tucker and Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian magazine, November 2008
Newest Science & Nature Photo Essays
PHOTOS: The Mind-Blowing, Floating, Unmanned Scientific Laboratory
Wave Gliders are about to make scientific exploration a lot cheaper and safer
(3 pictures)
Where Are the Greenest Schools in the Country?
The definition of being eco-conscious is so much more than having solar panels on a roof
(10 pictures)
16 Photographs That Capture the Best and Worst of 1970s America
A new exhibit at the National Archives highlights an interesting decade—one that gave rise to the environmental movement and some awkward fashion
(16 pictures)
Photos: The Uneasy Conflict Between Artificial and Natural Light
Artist Kevin Cooley has traveled the world capturing landscapes where one light shines on the horizon
(7 pictures)
Most Popular Photo Essays
The 20 Best Small Towns in America of 2012
From the Berkshires to the Cascades, we've crunched the numbers and pulled a list some of the most interesting spots around the country
(21 pictures)
The 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2013
From the blues to the big top, we’ve picked the most intriguing small towns to enjoy arts and smarts
(21 pictures)
16 Photographs That Capture the Best and Worst of 1970s America
A new exhibit at the National Archives highlights an interesting decade—one that gave rise to the environmental movement and some awkward fashion
(16 pictures)
Seven Famous People Who Missed the Titanic
The notables who planned to sail on the fateful voyage included a world-famous novelist, a radio pioneer and America’s biggest tycoons
(9 pictures)
Additional Sources
"Neotropical roots of a Polynesian spice: the hybrid origin of Tahitian vanilla, Vanilla tahitensis (Orchidaceae)," Pesach Lubinsky et al., American Journal of Botany, August 2008
"Superiority, Competition, and Opportunism in the Evolutionary Radiation of Dinosaurs," Stephen L. Brusatte et al., Science, September 12, 2008
"Barotrauma is a significant cause of bat fatalities at wind turbines," Erin F. Baerwald et al., Current Biology, August 26, 2008
"Low Frequency Groans Indicate Larger and More Dominant Fallow Deer (Dama dama) Males," Elisabetta Vannoni and Alan G. McElligott, PLoS One, September 2008
"Mirror-Induced Behavior in the Magpie (Pica pica): Evidence of Self-Recognition," Helmut Prior et al., PLoS Biology, August 2008
Comments (2)
Only the ones that get too near a wind farm die from barotrauma. The bats dying from the fungus is a different problem. You probably heard of this recently because a USGS scientist (see http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2058) identified the fungus and published the news a few weeks ago.
Posted by Sarah Zielinski on November 13,2008 | 02:23 PM
Are all bats dying from "barotrauma"? I had heard that it was a fungus killing them. We saw very few bats this past summer.
Posted by Ellen Hood on November 10,2008 | 06:47 PM