Sloths Turtles Dogs Bugs Pet Allergies and Plastic Soup

Hurst: Hi Carol, are you afraid of heights? Clowns?  Public speaking? Giant bugs that can eat a turtle?

Carol: Definitely clowns.  But you’re being weirder than usual, Hurst.  What’s going on?

Hurst: It’s just this article that I can’t get out of my mind.  It’s about these giant water bugs who lie in wait for their prey, which evidently can be almost anything.  They are notoriously aggressive and don’t seem to be intimidated by much. But they don’t live in North Carolina so I think we are safe.  For now.

Carol: I’m worried, Hurst, but not about the bugs.  It’s hard to pick my favorite story for the week but I’ll go with the short piece from Faunalytics about turtles.  I’ll be taking some students to Costa Rica in May on a volunteer tourism trip related to Hawksbill Sea Turtles, so that story really caught my attention.  In fact, we need to find a guest blogger to take my spot for a couple weeks while I’m gone. I’m afraid the position doesn’t pay too well, though.

Hurst: You mean the opportunity to work with me isn’t payment enough?

Carol: Um, no.  Anyway, do you know how turtles like to communicate?

Hurst: I know this one…they use their shell phone.  On that note, see you next week!

 

Dog owners are much happier than cat owners, survey finds from The Washington Post

Burger King’s Whopper just got Impossibly Good from The Good Food Institute

The Vital Importance Of Turtles from Faunalytics

Audio: Debunking myths about sloths is crucial to stopping the sloth crisis from Mongabay

D.C. judge tosses lawsuit involving county supervisor’s cattle over protections for Sierra Nevada frogs and toads from The Union Democrat

Giant water bugs eat turtles, ducklings, and even snakes from National Geographic

‘Plastic Soup:’ Photos and Q&A with author of new book documenting plastic pollution and solutions from Mongabay

My Cat Allergy Is Killing Me, but Cupcake Stays from WSJ

Rhino poacher trampled to death by elephants then eaten by lions at Kruger National Park in South Africa from The Sun

A rights revolution for nature from Science

Pork industry soon will have more power over meat inspections from The Washington Post

Thank you to John Delconte and Bob Fischer for alerting us to many of these great stories.  Photo credit: Jeremy Bishop from Unsplash.