2,000 year old seed grows into sapling
A botanist in Israel has nurtured a sapling from a 2,000 year old seed discovered at King Herod’s winter palace on Mount Masada. The Judean date palm sapling, which now stands at about 5 feet tall, may be used to reestablish the species in a region where it once thrived.
The Judean date is chronicled in the Bible, Quran and ancient literature for its diverse powers — from an aphrodisiac to a contraceptive — and as a cure for a wide range of diseases including cancer, malaria and toothache.
For Christians, the palm is a symbol of peace associated with the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The ancient Hebrews called the date palm the “tree of life” because of the protein in its fruit and the shade given by its long leafy branches. The Arabs said there were as many uses for the date palm as there were days in the year.
Greek architects modeled their Ionic columns on the tree’s tall, thin trunk and curling, bushy top. The Romans called it Phoenix dactylifera — “the date-bearing phoenix” — because it never died and appeared to be reborn in the desert where all other plant life perished.
[via]
If you're new to Tightgrid, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
All hail our Turkey overlords
Turkeys are invading our suburbs and cities. And they’re wild. The seven million wild turkeys in the United States, once thought to be suited only to wide expanses of unbroken forest, are adapting to urban environments better than biologists predicted. While the wild turkeys I’ve seen seemed pretty spooked around people, Chris Leahy, of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, claims today’s turkeys are similar to yesterday’s:
“If you look at records going back to the Pilgrim [era], turkeys moved in large flocks and they were quite fearless—or clueless—and people could basically walk up to them and bop them on the head.
“Turkeys have not been particularly afraid of humans and have been readily accommodating to our habits and ways of living,” he said.
“So it’s not terribly surprising that we find them wandering in the suburbs or the streets of Brookline [in Massachusetts] and sort of catching meals where they can.”
See also my post linking to a story on owls in Charlotte, North Carolina, that seem to think the city is an old growth forest. Happy Thanksgiving.
Anti-pigeon movement takes flight, wants bread
Cities in Europe are discussing methods for reducing their pigeon populations.
Scientists, city officials and animal welfare activists met in the western German city of Essen on Tuesday for Germany’s first Town Pigeon Conference to discuss how to deal with the growing pigeon population which is expected to rise by around 50 million to up to 400 million worldwide in the next 10 years as a result of growing urbanization.
There are around one million of them in New York, and Venice has the highest pigeon density with an estimated three birds per human inhabitant. In most big European towns, there is around one pigeon for every 20 citizens.
What are the risks?
[T]he birds can and do spread diseases, allergies and parasites to humans. Haag-Wackernagel says many everyday illnesses including allergies can be attributed to human proximity to the birds which carry salmonella, lung illnesses, fleas, ticks and a host of other ailments — something to think about when surrounded by flapping pigeons in town squares or outdoor cafes.
How do we get rid of them?
“Killing makes no sense at all,” says Haag-Wackernagel. “The birds have an enormous reproduction capacity and they’ll just come back. There is a linear relationship between the bird population and the amount of food available.” A pair of pigeons can produce up to 12 fledglings per year.
“The best way to reduce the population is not to feed them. People say it’s cruel to deprive them of food but in the wild the sudden absence of food is a completely natural occurrence and animals adapt to it.”
Photograph by Pensiero.
Mapping carbon footprints
The Carbon Trust has created a surface map of CO2 emissions across the United Kingdom. There’s more discussion here.
The Manhatta Project
October’s New Yorker profiles landscape ecologist Eric Sanderson; he’s using computer-aided geographical analysis to determine what Manhattan looked like before Henry Hudson sailed past in 1609.
The Wildlife Conservation Society hosts Sanderson’s Manhatta Project.