Hey, welcome back to Natural News from the Field Museum! We've got some spooooooky stories in today's episode!
New research on a few of Madagascar's adorable bacterial-disease carrying critters, a shout-out
to our volunteers in the bird prep lab, and a scary story about how a ghost from
science past continues to haunt our researchers today.
Let's get to it!
Tenrecs are funny little mammals - they look sort of a mashup between a shrew, an opossum,
and a hedgehog - some of them even have quills!
There are a number of species throughout Africa and the island of Madagascar, and recently
one of these - the Tailless tenrec -- was discovered by Field biologist Steve Goodman
and his collaborators to be adorable reservoirs... for DISEASE.
Tailless tenrecs are native to Madagascar, but have been introduced to Mayotte, an island
that's part of the Comoros Archipelago.
And with them they've brought Leptospira mayottensis, which is a bacterial disease
that can be transmitted from animals to humans.
The illness the bacteria causes is called Leptospirosis, and it's passed on to humans
through contact with contaminated urine, blood, or water, soil, or food from infected hosts,
making it bad news for farmers, and those that work with animals.
Contracting the idsease doesn't come without some potentially major consequences: while
some infected people may not exhibit symptoms, others can experience fever, headache, vomiting,
even liver failure or meningitis - and death.
And while it was known to come from certain livestock animals like cattle and pigs, Steve
and his colleagues report in a recent PLOS paper that the tailless tenrec also carries
the bacteria, along with dogs and rats.
So ultimately, knowing how different species of the Leptospira bacteria travels between
wild animals, livestock, and humans can help healthcare professionals and medical researchers
diagnose and treat the disease.
The good news is that the Centers for Disease Control recommends limiting your time swimming
or wading in water that's contaminated with animal urine and you greatly reduce your risk
for exposure.
So, yeah.
Don't swim in pee.
Got it.
I'm going to tell you the spooooooky story about a scientist who took incomplete notes.
Doctor Elias Francis Shipman was a student at Northwestern University Preparatory School
in 1872 when he became interested in natural history - specifically, botany.
But on one collecting trip in northwestern Indiana near his home, he snagged another
find: the Hoosier frog, a new and rare species.
The find was published six years later in the 1878 edition of the Manual of the Vertebrate
Animals of the Northern United States and his specimen went to the Chicago Academy of
Sciences, but there was a mystery to solve: where, and when exactly, did Shipman find
the frog?
The only clue he left was a single name: Benton County, Indiana.
Collections manager of reptiles and amphibians Alan and coauthor Donna Resetar detail in
their recent paper, Doctor Elias Francis Shipman and the Hoosier Frog, how they combed through
records from the herbarium to try and pinpoint the specimen's origins.
They tracked his movements based off of digitized school newsletters, and the dates on plants
he collected as a student.
Alan and Donna narrowed down a year: 1876.
During the process they revealed that Shipman enjoyed going by the name Shippy, and he excelled
at intramural sports.
While these details didn't really help pinpoint the frog's location, they were kind of fun
to learn anyway.
Unfortunately, Shippy passed away not long after graduation.
There's no record of his death, and his original tombstone has worn away, replaced by one with
inaccurate information, leaving his legacy with even more questions to answer.
Perhaps Shippy's ghost still wanders Benton County in search for other specimens of the
Hoosier Frog, reminding young students: recooooord exact collecting coordinates.
Invest in global positioning systems..
Or you will be haunted by scientists from the paaaasssssttt.
The Chicago Tribune came by the bird collection to highlight one of the cooler, but smellier,
activities Museum volunteers get to participate in: bird prep!
Every year some 6-7,000 new birds are donated to The Field Museum by a group called the
Chicago Bird Collision Monitors.
Throughout the year, volunteers from the CBCM pick up any birds that are injured or die
as a result of flying into our downtown skyscrapers.
The injured birds are taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center, and the dead ones
end up here at the Museum.
Each one of these birds coming into the Museum is accompanied with information about when
and where it was found, before going into a freezer to kill off any hitchhiking parasites
or pests.
Before the bird is prepped, the parasites are collected and stored in
vials, the bird is weighed, and it either becomes a study skin or is skeletonized by
our flesh-eating beetles - but first!
A portion of its tissue is preserved in a tube and cryogenically frozen for future DNA
analysis because, after all, this is the future we live in.
In the last thirty years, our Museum has received more than 75,000 birds that have died from
window strike alone.
In a single square mile in downtown Chicago, more than 170 different species of birds have
been recovered.
There's a ton of information that can be learned from these birds, like the weeks the migrations
are occurring, and how that changes from year to year as effects from climate change impacts
temperature and food availability.
And, researchers from all over the world use the birds to answer questions about everything
from how the age of a bird can be learned by studying its plumage, to the type of pathogens
and parasites found on them, and how those may be transmitted between birds
- and perhaps, to humans.
Regardless of what these specimens are used for in the future, it's great to have a team
of volunteers who help them along to meet their research potential.
If you're into this sort of thing, be sure to check in your area for any museums that
might be interested in taking birds for their collections!
With the correct permits you, too, could be tasked with telling passer-bys that the dead
bird in your hand is destined for science.
Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Natural News from The Field Museum!
If you guys are interested in the things we talked about,
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Like, the next episode of 'Natural News,' comin' out in two weeks. Seeya!