The Best Biome – Details, episodes & analysis

Bees know more than you. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but they definitely know more than you realize! From complex problem solving to tool use to wing-sparkle navigation, bees illuminate our understanding of insect cognition. In this episode, Nicole invites us to perceive the world as our buzzy, bumbly friends might, in beautifully smooth 240 fps.

Primary Source:

• Buchmann, S. 2023. What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories, and Personalities of Bees. Island Press.
• Support us and indie bookstores when you buy the book through this Bookshop.org link!

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Desertification is a major threat to many grasslands, so let's study the best real-world example: The Horqin Grassland, aka the Horqin Sandy Lands. How has this landscape changed over time, what can it teach us about the future of arid grasslands, and which approaches by Inner Mongolia and China to fight desertification give us hope? We love a hopeful story, and this certainly is one.

Primary Sources:

• Visual timeline of land deterioration and reversals. (Image)
• https://www.scitepress.org/PublishedPapers/2021/110202/110202.pdf 
• Song, C., Wang, S., & Lu, W. (2021). Landscapes in the Horqin Sandy Land: Patterns And Processes. Proceedings of The International Conference on Water Resource and Environment. https://doi.org/10.5220/0011020200003354 
• Huang, W., He, Y., Wang, H., Zhao, X., & Zhu, Y. (2023). Long-term effects of restoration on the links between above-and belowground biodiversity in degraded Horqin Sandy Grassland, northern China. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1128187  
• Chen, Q., Yang, X., Kwon, S., Li, Y., Liu, J., & Zhang, K. (2023). Woody plant cover trends and potential drivers in the Horqin Temperate Steppe, Northeast China: Remote Sensing-based computation and modeling. Ecological Indicators, 146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109789
• Serod, Tsedevdorj. (2018). Population changes behind grassland degradation in Horqin region of Inner Mongolia , China. Research of One Health. https://www.academia.edu/109077058/Population_changes_behind_grassland_degradation_in_Horqin_region_of_Inner_Mongolia_China

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Grasshopper mice are small but fierce. They howl like wolves, stalk their prey like cats, and finish up with a quick face clean. These solitary animals like to live life dangerously and enjoy even venomous meals.

Photos and more are at our site.

Primary Sources:

• Grasshopper Mouse Hunting and Howling [YouTube]
• Animal Diversity Web. Regents of the University of Michigan.
• USDA Bulletin: Life History and Habits of Grass-hopper mice, genus Onychomys. (1939). [PDF]
• Richardson, D., Karczmar, A. G., & Scudder, C. L. (1972). Intergeneric behavioral differences among methamphetamine treated mice. Psychopharmacologia, 25(4), 347–375.
• Tracey Switek. Onychomys: Tiny Terror of the Western Deserts.

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Nicole talks painted dogs: a surprisingly wholesome and fun-loving animal. They are excellent hunters, take care of not just their pups but their elderly, and rarely squabble amongst themselves.

Photos and more are at our site.

Primary Sources:

• Painted Dog Conservation website.
• Painted Dog Research Trust website.
• Robert L. Robbins. (2000). Vocal Communication in Free-Ranging African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus). Behaviour, 137(10), 1271–1298.
• COZZI, G., BEHR, D. M., WEBSTER, H. S., et al (2020). African Wild Dog Dispersal and Implications for Management. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 84(4), 614–621.

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Enjoy this episode of very good facts and very good nonsense. We revisit a nice game of stump the podcast host, this time with more bug viscera and talking ourselves out of an obvious answer.

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In the Páramo grasslands of South America is a cloud covered land where a unique ecosystem thrives. Allan tells us all about a plant that drinks clouds plus the miraculous little hummingbirds that call this place home.

Photos and more are at our site.

Primary Sources:

• Luteyn, J. 1999. Páramos: A Checklist of Plant Diversity, Geographical Distribution, and Botanical Literature. Taxon, Vol. 48, No. 3.
• Buytaert, W et al. 2005. Clay mineralogy of the soils in the south Ecuadorian paramo region. Geoderman Vol 127, Iss 1-2.
• Carrington, D. 2019. In the land of El Dorado, clean water has become ‘blue gold’. The Guardian.

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Did you know meerkats are far more murderous than they seem or that their burrows can be as wide as a Purple Worm's? All this and more as we delve underground and find out why they can be so aggressive and who would win in a fight: 1000 meerkats or Nicole.

Primary Sources:

• Gómez, J., Verdú, M., González-Megías, A., Méndez, M. 2016. The phylogenetic roots of human lethal violence. Nature 538, 233-237.
• Dyble, M., Houslay, T., Manser, M., Clutton-Brock, T. 2019. Intergroup aggression in meerkats. Proc. R. Soc. B. 286: 20161993.
• Young A., and Clutton-Brock, T. 2006. Infanticide by subordinates influences reproductive sharing in cooperatively breeding meerkats. Biol. Lett.2385–387.

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Conservation can be DEPRESSING, so for Mental Health Month we decided to share ONLY positive news and stories (after taking a little break for our brains). Rewire those neurons everybody, because it's not all bleak.

Good news so far in May:

• Biden-Harris Administration announced $36 million for national forests and grasslands
• Dakota Prairie Grasslands received $464,000 of that to improve access.
• US Department of Agriculture and the Interior announced $2.8 billion in funding for 2024 authorized by the Great American Outdoors Act to improve access to management and recreation opportunities on national forests and grasslands.
• Proposed CRP Reform Act of 2023
• TNC funding 9 grasslands research projects thru 2023 JE Weaver Small Grands Awards
• Arizona is restoring migration routes for pronghorn and mule deer
• South Dakota spending $1 mil restoring grasslands
• No-Mow-Summer in Dengibghshire County, Wales
• Earless Dragon burrows (Video)
• Saving Phu My, one of the Mekong Delta’s last natural grasslands
• UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists
• WWF Policy Actions to Save Grasslands
• There's still time to save the Cerrado! (New Research)
• Cargill got sued over Cerrado deforestation again.

Good news deep dives:

• Success in the Savanna: Blue-throated Macaw Update
• 2022 State of the Birds Report
• North American Grasslands Conservation Act
• Great Plains Ecotourism Coalition
• Utah Wildlife Board approves changes to Utah prairie dog rule

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Wherein Rachel makes a definitive list of best bird nests in North American grasslands.

Primary Sources:

• A Field Guide to Birds Nests by Hal Harrison
• The Birder's Handbook by Paul R. Ehrlich
• Madison Audubon's Into the Nest

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Ostriches are one of the strangest birds we've ever talked about. They are the world's biggest bird and toughest survivor. They nest together, have radiators for necks, and can drink saltwater.

Photos and more are at our site.

Primary Sources:

• "Strangest Bird Alive". 2016. National Geographic. Documentary.
• Schou, M.F., Bonato, M., Engelbrecht, A. et al. Extreme temperatures compromise male and female fertility in a large desert bird. Nat Commun 12, 666 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-20937-7
• Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, John Kanwisher, Robert C. Lasiewski, Jerome E. Cohn, William L. Bretz, Temperature Regulation and Respiration in the Ostrich, The Condor, Volume 71, Issue 4, 1 October 1969, Pages 341–352, https://doi.org/10.2307/1365733

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