Notes from a rare planet: Zoologist capture elephant’s ‘Eureka!’ moment

6 nations across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa experienced record high temperatures this summer (Yale Environment 360)

  • “According to the Weather Underground blog, the hottest undisputed temperatures ever recorded in Asia have occurred during the last two summers, including temperatures of 127.9 degrees F (53.3 degrees C) in Mitrabah, Kuwait on Aug. 3; 127.4 F in Tallil, Iraq, on Aug. 3; and 127.4 F in Dehloran, Iran on July 28. The hottest undisputed temperature ever recorded in Asia occurred on May 26, 2010, when the mercury hit 128.3 F in Moenjodaro, Pakistan.”

Brazil: Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest decreased by 53.6 percent in July (Blue Channel 24)

  • This decline reveres an upward trend in deforestation that was seen in previous months.

Maryland to study reintroduction of Elk (The Baltimore Sum)

  • Maryland hasn’t seen elk since the 1700s, but elk were once found from New York to Georgia. They were hunted out more than a century ago.

Disease from human sewage is killing Caribbean corals (Discover Magazine
)

  • The highly contagious white pox disease is killing off corals. White lesions erupt all over the coral’s branches
  • And the cause? Human feces.

Zoologist capture elephant’s ‘Eureka!’ moment (Wired Science)

  • “They decided to create a new task for which a branch baited with food was hung out of “trunk reach” but a box strong enough to the elephant to stand on was placed within the enclosure. Each elephant was individually tested over a couple of days and the video below shows the moment that Kandula, having already used the cube once to reach the food, did it again — this time dragging the cube from out of frame to set it beneath the branch.”


If the above embedded video does not display, here to view it.