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PHOTOGRAPH BY JENNIFER BOSVERT, ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
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A long-lasting threat: Do you like apples, cherries, almonds, or peaches? They may have been pollinated by blue orchard bees. But a new study shows a common agricultural chemical not only harms the bees immediately but can have effects for generations. Wild-caught bees exposed to small amounts of the pesticide imidacloprid as larvae—from tainted pollen and nectar given to them by their mothers—produced 20 percent fewer offspring than blue orchard bees not exposed to the insecticide. And if bees are exposed multiple times, as happens in the wild, each exposure can further reduce fertility in the next generation, Douglas Main writes.
Can lobsters feel pain? Yes, and so can octopuses, shrimps, and crabs, scientists in the U.K. say. The government is now laying the groundwork to change how animals are treated and slaughtered, NBC News reports. A new report says clubbing the animals, slicing their brains, or asphyxiating them in a suspended net bag shouldn’t be acceptable.
The pecking order: Which birds hog all the food at the feeder? Blue jays and woodpeckers hold their own, while the chickadee gets pushed around by just about everyone, Andrew Van Dam and Alyssa Fowers write in the Washington Post.
Ruffled feathers: Yes, peacocks and peahens are lovely, but tell that to a Central California town plagued by the prancing, preening birds, which make jarring baby-like wails and produce prodigious amounts of feces. The town and a neighborhood group plan to relocate 30 or 40 of them, the Guardian reports. “If this were a pack of 100 rats that were scuffling around the yard or on the roof, no one would wait to deal with that problem,” says Dave Lieberman, president of a neighborhood homeowners’ group. “Unfortunately the peacocks are beautiful birds, you want to admire them, but in these numbers they can be destructive.”
Photos: This feral peacock does his California preening in West L.A.
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