just vibe-posting

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/12120332

Why these toads are evolving faster than anyone expected

An invasive cane toad (Rhinella marina) is measured in Australia. (Chris Barlow / Macquarie University via SWNS)

By Stephen Beech

Cane toads have leapt ahead of evolution theories by growing bigger and changing more rapidly than expected, according to new research.

The invasive species has bulged in size since being introduced into Japan less than 50 years ago, reveals the study.

Scientists say their findings suggest environmental pressures can drive rapid biological change.

The study comparing invasive cane toads in Japan and Australia found "substantial" changes in body size and shape have developed much more rapidly than suggested by long-held ideas of the pace of evolution.

Researchers measured and weighed wild-caught cane toads on Ishigaki Island in southern Japan and compared them to toads measured in Australia, Hawaii and South America.

A large cane toad outside. (Photo by Flávio Santos via Pexels)

The most striking difference was in body size with adult toads from Ishigaki weighing an average 190 grams (0.4 lbs) compared to 135g (0.3 lbs) for toads from Australia, while their average length was 122 millimeters (4.8 inches) compared to 111mm (4.3 ins).

The findings, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, also showed that Ishigaki toads had wider heads, shorter arms and longer legs than toads from other locations.

Cane toads have spread to more than 40 countries worldwide from their ancestral habitat in north-eastern South America.

They first spread to Puerto Rico and then to Hawaii and from there to Australia in the 1930s.

The toads of Ishigaki were introduced from Hawaii, via Taiwan and the Daito Islands, in 1978.

Senior researcher Rick Shine said: "Given these populations of toads in Japan and Australia shared a common history in Hawaii until the 1930s, these differences in size and body shape have developed in less than 100 years.

"The idea that evolutionary change happens at a glacially slow pace is being challenged by recent evidence showing rapid changes in species confronted with novel challenges, like being translocated to a different habitat."

The study didn't collect sufficient data to allow researchers — from Macquarie University and the University of Sydney in Australia plus Kyoto University in Japan — to test alternative theories about what might be driving the changes in body size.

But the research team speculated that the larger body sizes of Ishigaki toads could reflect favorable climatic conditions, particularly year-round rainfall or the impact of lower pressure from predators on the island.

Shine, an evolutionary biologist and ecologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, added: "We don't have a clear idea of the evolutionary forces that might be involved, so we can't say why body mass and shape has changed among the toads in the Japanese system."

Scott Metzger | Bluesky | Patreon

is this AI generated? i cannot tell anymore

Experts said the lack of such capabilities poses a potential risk when the president travels overseas. The White House defended the aircraft’s safety.

You hear that Iran!

Photographer @yogthos@lemmy.ml

Gammons are doing serious political attacks on Count Binface to protect farage https://x.com/tobytarrant/status/2075136261413560611

The River Otter's Remarkable Comeback

The first sign isn’t the otter itself. It’s the ripple – small, nearly invisible – spreading across the marsh. Then a blur of brown breaks the morning water’s silver surface. A head lifts, whiskers dripping, eyes alert. For a second, it lingers. Then it’s gone again, leaving only widening rings.

Not long ago, this scene, in this place, would have been impossible. In the 1980s, the chances of spotting a river otter anywhere along much of the Great Lakes shoreline were close to zero. Pollution, trapping, habitat loss – together they’d driven otters out. What remained were faded accounts, the odd specimen in a museum, a memory. Their return isn’t just welcome. It’s a sign the lakes themselves are healing.

The Great Lakes. Credit: Philroc/Wikimedia Commons.

A freshwater giant

North America's Great Lakes – Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario – form the world’s largest group of freshwater lakes. Together, they hold about one-fifth of all surface fresh water on Earth. Their basin straddles the border of Canada and the United States, sheltering more than 3,500 species of plants and animals, and tens of millions of people.

These waters aren’t simply vast storage tanks. They are living systems. Marshes filter runoff. Rivers swell with migrating fish. Wetlands cradle frog eggs and sedge roots. For millennia, Indigenous nations and fishing communities have relied on these shorelines. But stressed systems can break – and for decades, this one did.

The disappearance

River otters (Lontra canadensis) once moved almost everywhere in this basin. They swam with ease, hunted with precision and thrived in backwaters and bays thick with vegetation. But by the mid-20th century, they had vanished from the state of Ohio and become scarce across most of the watershed.

The reasons stacked up quickly. Over-trapping for fur. Pollution that loaded fish with PCBs and other toxins. Wetlands drained for farms and cities. Rivers and streams straightened, dammed, stripped bare. By the 1970s, the silence spoke volumes: the otter was gone, and with it an apex predator vital to the food chain.

A river otter at Muskatatuck National Wildlife Refuge. Photo: Don Sniegowski/Flickr.

The comeback

In 1986, Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) began reintroducing river otters to streams they had not seen in decades. Over the next seven years, 123 otters from Louisiana and Arkansas were released into rivers selected for their clean water, abundant food and protective cover.

They weren’t the only ones bringing otters back. In the late 1990s, New York’s River Otter Project relocated 279 otters – drawn from the Adirondacks, Catskills and Hudson Valley – to 16 sites across western and central New York state. Many of those waterways had been without otter populations longer than most residents could remember.

In Ontario, biologists have documented otters recolonizing areas such as Algonquin Provincial Park and the north shore of Lake Superior, where they had been scarce for much of the 20th century. Across western Canada, populations have rebounded more broadly. Aside from rare remnant areas on Prince Edward Island, river otters are now considered stable or expanding in nearly every province and territory.

Meanwhile, restoration of the habitat itself was gathering pace. Drained croplands were being reflooded as wetlands, riparian buffers were planted to shore up streambanks, and old dams were being removed to reconnect fragmented waterways. All of these efforts were bolstered by the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, a landmark U.S.–Canada treaty that pushed both countries toward reducing toxic discharges and restoring damaged habitats. By the 1990s, many of these rivers – once pollutants’ dumping grounds – were visibly cleaner and healthy enough once again to sustain apex predators.

The Maumee River at Defiance, Ohio. Photo: Bob Dilworth/Flickr.

Where the otters are now

Today, river otters once more slip through marshes and estuaries across the Great Lakes basin. Breeding populations are thriving along the Sandusky, Maumee and Grand rivers in Ohio. Sightings are increasingly common in Georgian Bay (part of Lake Huron) and along Ontario’s north shore of Lake Erie. Otters have returned to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula too, where quiet backwaters and fish-filled streams are ideal habitat.

As predators at the top of the chain, otters help regulate fish and invertebrate numbers. Their presence signals something deeper, too: the water is clean, the system productive, the ecosystem whole enough to support them again.

Challenges ahead

Recovery, unfortunately, doesn’t mean safety. Roads remain a serious threat. Highways cut through wetland corridors, and otters are killed crossing them. Wildlife officials map these blackspots and add underpasses, fencing and warning systems – but progress is slow.

New contaminants are appearing as well. PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals,” are showing up in Great Lakes fish, their long-term impacts still unknown. Shoreline development eats away at denning sites. Climate change threatens to shift prey distribution and alter seasonal ice cover. Any of these pressures could slow or even reverse otters’ recovery.

Otters in the harbour in Grand Marais, Minnesota, on Lake Superior. Photo: Sharon Mollerus/Flickr.

More than a species

To many Indigenous communities, the otter represents more than biology. In Anishinaabe culture, for example, it symbolises resilience, adaptability, play. Seeing otters return is a cultural renewal as much as a biological one – a sign that healthy ecosystems sustain people as well as wildlife.

For others, the meaning is simpler. Otters spark joy. A sudden flash through cattails. The clean dive of a plunge. A slide down mud or snow. In this way, they’ve become unofficial guardians of fresh water, their vitality pulling people into conversations about wetlands and rivers.

The folks in charge of the comeback

The otters’ recovery is the work of many. ODNR’s reintroduction laid the foundation, but protection and monitoring continue through agencies, non-profits and volunteers.

The Alliance for the Great Lakes fights pollution and protects shorelines. The River Otter Ecology Project spreads knowledge and research. The Wetlands Initiative rebuilds marshes and floodplains that support countless species, otters among them. Together, they form a safety net for the otters’ future.

Photo: Carlos Porrata

Forward thinking

The next phase is keeping waterways open, clean and full of prey. As otters spread into smaller rivers and lakes, careful planning will matter – especially in regions under pressure from development.

Cross-border cooperation will be critical, since the lakes cross Canada and the U.S. – and otters do not care for borders. Public participation will matter too: reporting sightings, volunteering, supporting wetland projects. Each action helps.

The return of otters – and possibility

On a quiet morning, an otter surfaces with a fish flashing in its jaws. It climbs a half-sunken log, shakes itself in a spray, then slides back into the water with barely a ripple. The rings spread, then fade. The lake seems unchanged – yet it isn’t.

What matters is simple: otters are back. And their presence proves something worth remembering. Healing is possible. Ecosystems can recover. The story of the Great Lakes – its waters, its people, its wildlife – is still unfolding.

In an initial response to CBC's questions about why there is no cell service in the village, a Bell MTS spokesperson said: “wireless expansion in rural regions, such as St. Lazare, is a challenge for private investment alone and we are open to partnerships with provincial and federal government to expand our network.”

So, brought on by this thread:

https://hexbear.net/post/8986189?scrollToComments=false

And @EdlritchEconomics@hexbear.net pointing out it's a AI image; here is a whole thing.

So I think the general consensus is AI slop bad and we dont want it in this town.

AI slop is now a bit tricky and I wouldnt blame someone for being tricked and posting slop as if it were real because they were themselves mislead. I dont blame em, scrutinizing every image is an exhausting ordeal.

So my proposal, is that any AI slop presented as true should be removed. Posting AI slop to comment on AI slop seems fine and honest. I dont think anyone posting AI slop and presenting it as real should face consequences unless there is evidence of doing it on purpose but we cant have robot pictures pretending to be real pictures. We need Blade Runners.

I dunno if a task force or an if you see something say something method is best, but it's just gonna get harder to spot for a while until the whole thing turns into a fun house mirror, so it seems worth getting in front of. You shouldn't have to scroll the comments to find out a posted image is AI and I would prefer no image posted here be AI unless it's meant to comment on that image as an AI image, illustrating a point about a slop image is one thing but if an image is AI I think it should just be removed but ill accept a tag being needed.

I picked Chat cause I dunno if anyone uses Feedback nowadays.

This also just made me think of photoshopping pictures to make them look like AI for plausible deniability/for a bit

Ripe for the booping