The Goldfish Dynasty

source: Mirror

Goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus) today are more often than not seen as crackers, carnival prizes and the victims of childhood responsibility (for a source please see: my parents). This view of goldfish, however, is only a modern one. The fish, domesticated over a thousand years ago, has represented prosperity, power, luck, and love in various cultures across the world, before becoming the common resident of the modern fishbowl.

Originating in the waters of Ancient China, the goldfish descended from the Prussian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio). C.a.gibelio is a small, silver, rather plain fish which, though rare, can have color morphs of orange, red and yellow. Ancient Chinese were quick to select for these morphs, breeding one rare orange carp with another, and began the fish's domestication. The first written records of keeping goldfish as pets dates back to the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 A.D), but they were probably kept long before that. There are few written records, period, before that point, but the Sung Dynasty writings seem to refer to keeping goldfish as common, meaning that it had been practiced for a while.

It was not until the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) that various color morphs began to develop. It became illegal in China to breed and keep yellow, or golden, fish. Gold was seen as the color of royalty, so the morph that was the goldfish’s namesake became rarer than other morphs, such as orange. This is probably why the orange color remains the more common variety to this day.

The Ming Dynasty also first saw goldfish bred for body shape. Various fin size, body size, and eye size were selected for, giving rise to the “fancy fish.” The majority of the hundreds of modern goldfish breeds are fancy fish; Celestial goldfish have surprised eyes that bug out and always look up, ryukin goldfish have long veils of fins that flow behind them as they swim, and the chocolate moore has black butterfly wings for a tail.

Still, the standard common goldfish has remained the most popular breed, and the fish's popularity continued to grow and spread throughout the world. The goldfish arrived in Japan during the 16^th Century, and was introduced to Europe and the U.S. in the 17^th century. During the 1600s it became customary in these countries for a man to give his wife a goldfish on their one-year anniversary, representing love and a long-lasting relationship. This tradition began to die out as the fish became increasingly common.

The goldfish’s rise to fame in the U.S. was due, in large part, to the U.S. government. In 1878, the United States Commission on Fisheries received the first official import of goldfish. In celebration and to gain publicity, the commission gave out free fish to the people of D.C. Anyone not in the area had only to send in a request to Congress and a goldfish would be sent out post-haste. This strategy took off, and Congress was eventually sending out 20,000 free goldfish every year, leading in 1874 to New York Times quote:

“The business of distributing free goldfish to the people of the District of Columbia has become such a tax on the Fish Commission that it appears they must choose between running a goldfish bureau for Washington exclusively and conducting legitimate work for the bureau.”

In the 20^th century the goldfish moved from Capitol Hill to Coney Island. The little fish became prizes at carnivals and fairs around the world, given away to small, sugar-crazed children, along with their standard bowl.

The average age of a goldfish in the U.S. is 4-6 years. This, however, is probably because of the terrible conditions most goldfish live in. It is estimated that with proper care, goldfish should live from 12-20 years, and the oldest goldfish lived to 45.

The conditions of the standard goldfish bowl are terrible for numerous reasons. First, goldfish poop. A lot. In fact, goldfish do not have stomachs, their digestive systems are just intestines, so food runs through them fast. Fishbowls have no filter, and dealing with all of this detritus can be nigh near impossible in that container. Compared to other tanks, bowls also have a small surface area/volume ratio. This means that only a little bit of oxygen from the air can enter the bowl for the fish to breath. Finally, fish bowls are small and boring. Despite what myths you may have heard, goldfish can be shockingly smart, and social. Not only do they distinguish between faces, but they can even be trained to solve mazes and do tricks; and they have a memory considerably longer than a few seconds. Goldfish memory can last 3-5 months, which is something I cannot say for some people.

With a modern understanding of goldfish has come new appreciation, and many groups are now lobbying for better treatment for the fish. Activists around the world are arguing that the way goldfish are commonly housed represents animal cruelty. In 2004 the U.K. Made it illegal for goldfish to be given away as prizes, and in 2005 the city of Rome passed a similar law that also banned the use of the standard fish bowls.

Not all goldfish have been confined to rounded walls. Throughout the world, released or escaped goldfish represent an ecological threat. Intentionally introduced to many U.S. lakes and ponds, wild goldfish can now be found in almost every state. Not all of these populations have become biological menaces, but the hardiness and the omnivorous appetite of these former pets have made them a problem for some native fish such as the Pahrump poolfish (Empetrichthys latos latos) in Nevada. 

Overall very little is known about the effects of the goldfish's infringement of alien waters, but it does at least appear to be doing quite well. Wild goldfish in the United States have even begun interbreeding with the common carp (Cyprinus carpio), another carp species running rampant in U.S. waters. It is doing so well that New York state declared it illegal to place a fish in any body of water without a permit, including in your own backyard. That might seem extreme, but since the majority of wild goldfish are released, and since the majority of goldfish owners are kids, and since in 2000 the state had over 560,000 kids under 10, you do the math. After all, we've all owned a goldfish.

Sources:

• ·         http://www.aquariumguys.com/kid-guide-to-goldfish.html
• ·         http://puregoldfish.com/
• ·         http://www.ducksters.com/animals/goldfish.php
• ·         http://thegoldfishtank.com/goldfish-facts/
• ·         http://thegoldfishtank.com/goldfish-facts-more-goldfish-facts/
• ·         http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/fish-bowl/articles/fun-fish-facts/
• ·         http://www.goldfishfacts.org/
• ·         http://www.about-goldfish.com/goldfish-history.html
• ·         http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7352909.stm
• ·         http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/4341254.stm
• ·         http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3893889.stm
• ·         http://goldfishcareguide.com/2008/03/05/5-reasons-not-to-use-goldfish-bowls/
• ·         http://howtotakecareofagoldfish.com/goldfish-slime-coat/
• ·         http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/rome-bans-cruel-goldfish-bowls-1.556045
• ·         http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=508
• ·         http://www.exoticgoldfish.net/breeds.html
• ·         http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/the-great-goldfish-invasion-how-an-exotic-carp-took-over-america/264420/

Canada (Not Canadian) Goose: The Conservation Program That Was TooSuccessful

Image from: http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/

If you live just about anywhere in the United States or Canada you have almost certainly seen Canada Geese (Branata canadensis) forming a wedge in the sky while they honk their way south for winter; and you will see them again, honking their way back north at winter’s end. They are one of the most recognizable birds in North America and they seem to thrive in both the most rural to the most urban of environments. Some consider their abundance a nuisance, but that may be the price we pay for one of the most successful conservation stories in history.

By the early 20th century over hunting and wetland destruction had been all but wiped out the Canada Goose.[8] By the 1950s one subspecies, the Giant Canada Goose (Branata canadensis maxima), was labeled extinct. A decade later waterfowl researcher Forrest Lee was studying a small population of geese in at Silver Lake in Minnesota when his birds were identified as the now no-longer-extinct subspecies.[2] Two years later Lee agreed to pack up for North Dakota where he headed an aggressive reintroduction and restoration program for the giant geese at the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center. Using 64 pairs of birds, Lee’s program released over 6,000 geese into North Dakota by 1981.[3] As a legacy to his success, by 2005, only 50 years after it was thought extinct, the Giant Canada Goose’s population was estimated at 1.5 million and they can be found all across the Eastern United States and Canada.[2] Several other programs have helped different subspecies thrive and today Canada Geese number about 5 million in all.[4] After his success in Minnesota, Lee was recruited to help other geese populations around the world, and his abundant success earned him the affectionate nickname “Father Goose.”[3]

It is largely because of Lee and researchers like him that we can appreciate today's abundance of geese flying overhead twice a year, but more and more geese are not being seen migrating, they are becoming year-round residents. While their natural patterns dictate migration, many geese wont fly as far south or appear to have given it up entirely.These new behaviors are likely due a combination of many factors such as changing climate and a new abundance of food right at their doorstep. Abundant lawns and golf courses mimic their natural habitats and diet, and agricultural fields often contain a wealth of waste seed that the provide the geese with more than enough food to survive the winter and do not require the much more arduous trip south.[5]

The non-migratory situation is further complicated by baby geese, or goslings. Migration is not instinctual and must be learned, and goslings must learn it from their parents. Non-migratory parents beget non-migratory goslings, and the number of permanent resident geese has increased alarmingly.[6]

While a few geese might be annoying, the increasing numbers of year-round geese has become a serious concern. Geese can excrete 1 to 3 pounds of excrement per day and geese are known carriers of many pathogens, some of which can be transferred to humans, such as avian influenza, salmonella, and botulism.[1][6] The birds often make their deposits on lawns, in parks, and in water sources.The geese can also severely damage local agriculture and have even been known to crash airplanes by being sucked into the engines.[7][9] Several methods are being taken to curb population growth, not the least of which is hunting. 2.6 million geese are shot out of the sky every year but so far it seems to have little effect.[5] Despite our best efforts to stop the the population’s rapid proliferation, the Canada Goose continues to show us just how successful a conservation program can be.

Additional Sources:

• http://www.ducks.org/hunting/waterfowl-id/canada-goose#ad-image-0
• http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/canada-goose/

Hiatus (sad face)

I was recently accepted to an internship working on giant kangaroo rats in the Carrizo Plain. I have only just arrived at the site and can't tell you how excited I am to begin work.

However, like all good things, it comes with a cost. There is little internet access here, and probably less free time. I do not believe I can feasibly do a post everyweek, and so, with a heavy heart, I am putting The Everyday Animal on a hiatus until further notice.

However, I will try and keep everyone up to date on my field work through my other blog: For Science Sake. I encourage you all to visit it to see what ecology field work is like.

I greatly enjoy these posts, and sincerly hope tto continue them in the future. This field work will be 2-4 months, but once I am back in the modern world I hope to continue giving out great animal info.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been a supporter and reader of this blog! This is not the end, I promise, just a break.

The Darker Side of Cute: Domestic Rabbits

Baby Bunny!!
Photo source: The Pix Host

Whether or not you are spending this weekend searching for colorful eggs hidden by an enormous bunny (what?) there is no denying that rabbits have become one of the largest symbols of spring. And why not? They are cute, fluffy, domesticated, and during spring they reproduce like... well, like rabbits.

The rabbits that you are probably picturing now have been domesticated since the days of cavemen, but not always for their companionship.

The European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has become the variety of domestic breeds that we know today. White with brown splashes, or a granitic gray with big black eyes, or all black with just a tip of white on the nose; bunnies are known for being adorable. But when they were first domesticated, it wasn't for ooos and awws. It was for their meat.

Rabbits were first kept by people in large numbers during the Roman Empire. The Romans kept rabbits as a source of food, helping to transport the rabbits throughout Europe as the empire grew [1].

But the actual domestication of rabbits took place in France behind monastery walls. French monks lived in seclusion but needed a source of meat that could be easily kept within the monastery. Better yet, a food that they could eat during lent.

In 600 A.D. Pope Gregory I declared unborn or newly born rabbits, laurices, to be officially classified as "fish." Although the reasoning behind the declaration was probably more about giving the monks a break than actual taxonomic logic, it did allow the holy-men to consume, keep, and breed the rabbits, since fish was allowed during the days of lent. While never fish, through breeding and selecting for desirable traits, the monks did become officially domesticate the European rabbit [2].

By the 16th century rabbits had spread throughout Europe. Distinct breeds were developed and described, and they were becoming more popular for their fur and adorable attributes, rather than just their meat [3].

From the European continent, rabbits began traveling the world. Often sailors would release colonies of them onto islands to ensure that there would be a large food supply available for future voyages. Today the European Rabbit can be found throughout the world except for Asia and Antarctica.

Of course many islands do not have native rabbits, hares, or even mammals for that matter. The introduction of this glutinous, greedy, and lusting little bunny has destroyed ecosystems world-wide. One of the most dramatic examples is the invasion of rabbits into Australia.

In 1859 Thomas Austin released 24 European Rabbits onto Australia near Victoria [4]. Today there may be 200-300 million rabbits throughout the small continent [5]. On a diet of plenty and with no natural predators, the they multiplied. 

Rabbits are natural diggers. They make their burrows underground and will move a considerable amount of dirt to do so. With a small population, digging might not be a problem, but with hundreds of millions of rabbits digging up Australia they have caused major erosion and created an ecological nightmare. It is estimated that 1/8 of all native Australian mammals are in trouble because of the rabbit invasion [5].

By the begging of the 20th century Australia's ecology and agriculture were in trouble. Shooting and trapping were not enough to curb the rabbit population, so to stop their spread the government tried something a bit more grandiose. In 1907, the government finished building the world's longest continuous fence. At over 1100 miles, the fence separates the entire western side of the continent. A second fence was also built, stretching just over 700 miles farther west of the original. But fences break, and rabbits dig, and despite the enormity of the project it was eventually deemed a failure. The rabbits continued their invasion.

Finally, in the 1950s a more drastic approach was attempted. The myxoma virus, endemic to South America, is carried by mosquitoes from host to host and is lethal to almost 100 % of those that catch it. But, with a catch, it only affects rabbits. So in 1950 mosquitoes carrying the myxoma virus were released.

The impact was huge. 90-99% of the rabbits throughout Australia were wiped away in a sea of disease. But 1-10% remained, and they remained because most had a genetic immunity to the disease. So, spreading their immunity throughout the new population, the rabbits procreated and their numbers rebounded with force. Today myxoma is only 40% effective, not enough to keep the numbers in check. Since the failure of the myxoma virus, other diseases have been tried with similar failures [6]. The rabbits continue to invade Australia, having thwarted everything people have thrown at them. It is an ecological war that the rabbits seem to have won.

So a reminder as you are biting off the ear on a chocolate bunny this holiday (or after, when they are so much cheaper), munching on rabbits has a long tradition, and gave us the furry friends we have today. Just don't take your chocolate bunny to Australia.

Week off. Sorry.

I am taking a week for travel. But don't worry, I've got some awesome science info for you in the form of one of my favorite nature documentaries.

I highly encourage you all to watch this PBS documentary on sexual selection. Enjoy!

What Females Want and Males Will Do

I male peacock's version of dinner and drinks
source: Wikipedia

Our Dependent Guest: The Housefly

The Common Housefly
Photo from How Stuff Works

Spring is here! And with it comes cute baby bunnies and chicks, a wide array of beautiful flowers, and of course, houseflies.

They are not the most appealing animals to emerge this time of year, but they are just about everywhere. A single female housefly can lay up to 900 eggs in her lifetime [1]. And where to lay those eggs but in a delicious, moist pile of manure, giving her baby larva something to snack on when they hatch. Sound disgusting? Fascinating? You don't know the half of it yet.

Houseflies probably first evolved in the Africa, later hitching a ride with us to all the corners of the world [2]. In fact, houseflies are surprisingly dependent on us. They eat our food, use our animals' waste as a nursery and use our structures to take shelter so that they can make it through cold winters, ready to emerge when the weather warms up [3]. And emerge they do. Undoubtedly you will begin to see them land on your wall, ceilings, and food.

But the housefly has one big disadvantage when it comes to eating solid food: they have nothing to chew with. In fact it is physically impossible for a housefly to eat solid food. But they are able to get around this problem by liquefying our otherwise solid meals. With a straw-like mouth piece called a proboscis the housefly will drink up any liquid food that it can. When the food is to tough though, it will use tiny hairs at the end of its proboscis to scrape off some food particles. Then, the fly will vomit. It vomits digestive juices onto the food, dissolving them into a liquid and slurping it all back up [1]. Gross? Maybe, but it is exactly what we do, only we do it inside our bodies, chewing food into particles and dissolving them in our stomachs. Really we and the housefly have a very similar process, but our's takes place inside our bodies, and their's, out.

Sorry Mr. Larson, but you got this one wrong.
picture from pbase.com

But while we might use a new straw for every Slurpee, flies do not have that convenience when it comes to their proboscis. Inevitably some old food gets stuck in the tube, only to be vomited back out again, mixing with what was going to be your delicious dinner. Not all of it gets slurped back up again, leaving you with a glop of partially digested food and fly vomit. And thus, flies have gained a not-undeserved reputation as dirty, disease-spreading pests.

They are almost the perfect animal for spreading disease. They lay eggs in wet organic matter like dung, or compost or trash, picking up potentially deadly diseases like typhoid fever, salmonella, dysentery, even anthrax [4]. They then land on your food, or you, delivering diseases to your front door.

But simply carrying such diseases wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so hard to kill. After all we can't all be the Karate Kid. But what makes swatting a fly so difficult?

Flies are extremely well adapted to sensing motion of any kind, and are great at aerial maneuvers. The eyes of the housefly are extremely complex. If you have ever seen a picture of a "fly's eye view" with a thousand of the same picture seen in every widow, forget that. Seeing the same image over and over and over and over again makes very little evolutionary sense. In reality, each lens on a fly's eye acts like a one of ours. You can think of a fly having not two eyes, but up to 12,000 that are arranged in two semi-circle bundles [1].

A (probably) more accurate picture of a fly's view
Photo from flickr

This creates an image for the fly that severely lacks resolution, but is exceptional at sensing movement.

But the housefly doesn't stop with the eyes. It's body is covered with tiny hairs, known as tarsi, that are extremely sensitive to air movement. They can feel the air being pushed by that flyswatter coming at them, and they can get out of the way fast [1].

And once in the air they have a myriad of tricks they can perform. Tight turns, zigzags and loop-de-loops all help a fly get out of the way in a fast and unpredictable manner. These tricks are due to two extra wings that the fly has just below it's large main ones, and the ability to process information at astounding speeds. While its main wings beat furiously (up to 20,000 times per minute) [5]  two small wings, called haltere, are stabilizing the fly in mid air and the fly is taking in, processing information, and reacting to it in a few hundred milliseconds. They react in literally the blink of an eye [6].

And they need those reaction times. Birds, lizards, spiders, insects and swatters are a constant threat. So before you pick up that bug spray, just remember that these amazing animals live in world that is dangerous enough as it is. Just, maybe don't let them land on your food.

More Than A Bird Brain: The Crow

The American Crow
Photo from All About Birds

The crow doesn't seem all that impressive on the surface. Sporting an all-black coloration, the American Crow stands at only 44 cm (17.5 in) [1] and even has a dry, raspy caw that is neither pretty nor seems to draw much attention.

In pop-culture they are portrayed as either trash-birds or harbingers of death and disaster. Just think of the last zombie movie you saw.

But under their glossy black coat, crows are not only impressive, but mystifying. They are some of the smartest birds on the planet (one species may be THE smartest bird) and they are social animals that work and even raise families together. In other words, we share some traits in common.

Crows form closely-knit family groups. They are monogamous, faithful to their spouse, and even the crow-children stay close to the home. Many will forgo an opportunity to try to start a family of their own in order to help raise their brothers or sisters [2]. And their social personalities are not limited to their household. Crows stick together in large groups to forage for food. These groups can be big. Very big. A single flock of crows, known as a murder (pop-culture strikes again) can include well over a million individual birds, sometimes up to two million [3].

These impressive gatherings can usually be found around human settlements. American Crows are notorious for their ability to thrive in the conditions we create. Like humans, crows enjoy open landscapes with a few trees and perches, making our parks, cities and towns perfect ideal. Our commonalities with crows may go all the way back to a time when both species were foragers.

Crows played an important role in early human culture throughout the world. Thriving on carrion, crows could be found feeding on the recently deceased, linking them in many people's mind to the afterlife and religion. But crows feeding habits connected them to us in more ways than one. Humans are social, and group hunters, and crows undoubtedly grew close to us, knowing we could provide them with delicious scraps [4].

That kind of adaptability is what crows are famous for. Crows are incredibly smart, and American Crows is particularly talented in at least one respect: face recognition.

In a 2006 study, researchers the University of Washington captured crows, tagging them for later identification, all while wearing a mask. Recording the response of those crows later, they found that they reacted very little to researchers without the mask, but became aggressive when the researchers had the mask on, sometimes even diving at the researchers. The same response even came when different people wore the mask, indicating that it was indeed the face that they recognized [5]. What they also found was that crows that weren't originally caught responded in the same way. Crows could spread that knowledge through their avian society telling each other which humans were dangerous [4].

But they can indicate more than just warnings to each other. After walnut trees were planted in Japan, Japanese Crows began to take the hard-to-crack shells and place them behind the tires of parked cars or in the street. The cars would drive over them, Crrack, and crows would pick up their nutty profit.

This technique did not pop-up randomly either. It began in one small area of the city, with maybe one or two crows, and was gradually recorded father and farther out. a wave of knowledge from crow-to-crow spreading throughout Tokyo [4].

But arguably the most famous of all crow species is not from America, or Japan, but New Caledonia, a small tropical island off the coast of eastern Australia. The New Caledonian Crow might not be an everyday animal, but I would be remiss if  I didn't talk about them in a crow post.

An amazing feat by a New Caledonian Crow.
Photo from BBC

The New Caledonian Crow is possibly the smartest bird in the world, and maybe one of the smartest animals period. To get at tasty insects, the bird picked up a useful skill: it has learned to use tools. More than that, they have learned to create tools.

The crows can pick up sticks and sharpen them or bend them to solve the problem as they see fit. In a famous behavioral study from Oxford, New Caledonian Crows had to lift up a weight with a handle from the bottom of a long tube, and were given only long, thin, straight wires to do it with. The crows, upon discovering that straight wires could not help them, bent the wire into a hook, and hooked and lifted the weight [6]. Such cognitive abilities are unique among birds and are much greater than many primates, and even better than some human children.

More recent studies indicate that the New Caledonian Crows may even have knowledge or ideas of things that they cannot see, much as we do about microbes, atoms, and even gods [7].

Where ever they are located, crows around the world are social, highly intelligent and perhaps deserving of more respect than people give them. But they are still hunted in large numbers, and although some species such as the American Crow is doing well, others like the Northwest Crow and the Hawaiian Crow may have already gone extinct.

So the next time you see a crow in the street, or in the park, or nibbling on some trash, don't be so quick to dismiss it. Stop, give a thought to it's complexity, its resourcefulness, and its adaptability, and then be on your way.


For more on crows, crow studies, and the amazing-ness that is crows, here are some great videos:

• New Caledonian Crow making tools: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtmLVP0HvDg
• New Caledonian Crows reasoning on what they can't see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnqUAsyOTv4
• Crow Documentary: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/a-murder-of-crows/full-episode/5977/
• Talk on the intelligence of crows and ravens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptx1rBE1IL8

Note: because I have linked my sources in the post itself I will no longer be posting them separately afterwords as well. Similarly because I have posted links to the pictures used I will no longer be posting that separately. If you have thoughts on this or you would like to see these sources added back to the bottom of every post, please leave a comment below.