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Connect with Great BIG Nature
Common Loon.
Photo taken in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada.
Photo: Bryan Smith
With freezing temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius and vegetation hundreds and sometimes thousands of meters below the mountain tops, the summits of the Andes mountains are an extremely harsh environment. So how did a species of leaf-eared mouse make this barren land their home? That is the question a team of scientists are looking to answer after discovering 13 mummified mice at elevations above 6,000 meters (19,685 feet) in the Atacama Plateau of Chile and Argentina. Their discovery further proves the species is the world’s highest dwelling mammal. The mice, called Phyllotis vaccarum, are commonly found living in the Andes mountains at lower elevations, all the way down to sea level. In 2020, a living mouse was recorded at the summit of Llullaillaco, a volcano with an elevation of 6,739 meters (about 22,110 feet) on the border of Chile. It’s really hard to overstate just how inhospitable these environments are. On the summit of these volcanoes, each breath of air only contains about 40% of the oxygen that is available at sea level. The temperatures also rarely rise above freezing, and the wind forces are extremely strong, once recorded at over 116 mph. Basically, its like living on the surface of Mars!
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Photo: Marcial Quiroga-Carmosa
Fact or Fiction: Can a Squid Fly out of Water?
To escape predators in the ocean, these cephalopods will speed away by shooting a jet of water. But can squid use that behavior to take to the air and control their trajectories? The answer is yes!
For years scientists thought the Japanese common squid (or Pacific flying squid), would just leap out of the water to escape a predator, but new research suggests they actually glide through the air on unusually large pectoral fins, to the point where they are flying. In some cases a squid that was 20 cm long reached a height of two meters above the water and flew a total distance of 10 meters - 50 times its body length. What's more, the squid extended its fins and flared its tentacles in a radial pattern while airborne, as though guiding its flight. It was maintaining its posture in a certain way. It was doing something active.
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