WEBVTT - Biodiversity and Conservation: The Circle of Life – Lab 059 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:01.240 Have you seen Turning Red? 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:03.640 No, but it's on my list. I'm behind. 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:05.720 I can't believe that because you are usually the one 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:09.160 that's recommending movies to me. I saw Turning Red probably 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.600 the first week it came out, and I loved it. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.960 So in the movie, there is a red panda which 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.759 is native to China. But did you know that the 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.360 red panda is endangered? Do you know how upset that 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:24.920 makes me? After watching that movie? 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:27.200 I did not know that. You want to know what 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:29.480 else is in danger? What the gray Wolf? 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:31.720 The gray Wolf? What's going on? 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:34.800 Yes, the gray Wolf is also in danger. And it's 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.760 been a yo yo off the list in twenty twenty, 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:39.680 back on the list in twenty twenty one, and here 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:41.520 we are twenty twenty two. Is back on the list. 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:45.080 And it's little things that we are doing that caused 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:49.000 these disruptions in their prevalence on the planet. 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:51.279 Yep, we should all walk around with our heads hung low. 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.640 Shame Shane, Shane Shane, absolutely even when we think of so. 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.760 Like in La there is this mountain lion called P 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:02.760 twenty two and he is famous honey, and we disrupted 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.160 his food chain because he ended up eating an animal 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.920 who probably ate another animal, who ate a rat was 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.920 killed by rat poison and then P twenty two eventually 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.520 got sick because that rat poison made its way up 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:16.240 the food chain. 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:18.840 And who brought the rat poison us? 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:20.560 Shame, shame, shame. 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.200 I wish people could see us tolling our bill iron 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:28.720 Tt and I'm Zachiah and from Spotify. 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:53.960 This is Dope Labs. 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.600 Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that mixes hardcore science, 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.520 pop culture, and a healthy dost of friendship. This week 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:06.360 we're talking all about biodiversity and conservation. And if that 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:08.880 sounds like a word salad to you, don't worry. We're 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:10.880 gonna dig into those terms in this episode. 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.200 You know, it's spring, That means the flowers are blooming, 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.200 and the animals are out and about. The birds are chirping. 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:18.560 I've been in my hammock. 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:19.560 You've been in your hammock. 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:20.040 Yep. 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.280 Every time it gets warm, I pull that hammock out 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.960 of the shed and I do at least an hour 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:26.960 and a half every day of hammock time. 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:29.600 Well, you better keep your eyes open in your hammick time. 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:31.800 You could have a visitor, Well, you wouldn't have a 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.040 visitor like they had out in Silver Lake, California with p. 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.160 Twenty two, that mountain lion that was roaming. But you 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.079 could have a different type of visitor based on where 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:39.480 you live. 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.320 Yes, there is a neighborhood fox that I think I've 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.200 seen its tail, but I have not seen his full body, 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:47.760 but everybody talks about him. 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.799 Well, all the animals are stirring, and as you know, 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.079 this is their home, we're just inhabiting it. 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:58.200 We are visitors that overstate are welcome. You imagine somebody 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.640 moving to your house and it's like, mmm, I'm gonna 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.240 knock this wall down and turn this into a gym, 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:06.600 and you're like, this is where I'm trying to sleep. 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:11.400 And that has been suburban sprawl. Yeah, but you know, 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.359 it brings a great point as our population of humans 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.160 continues to grow, how do we live in harmony with animals? 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:19.520 How do we keep what's already here, preserve it and 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:21.480 not make any other species go extinct? 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:23.400 Okay, let's get into the recitation. 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:33.760 So what do we know? 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.360 I think we know even back to like elementary school, 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.160 do you remember those things like food wheels where will 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:41.480 show how all the different animals and plants are connected 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:42.480 and they're part of a yea. 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:44.880 Yes, the circle of life. 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.040 Yes, we know it's important to have a lot of diversity, 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:52.200 biological diversity, different animals and species all working together for 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:55.080 us to have a healthy environment, healthy planet. But I 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.560 think we know that there's been some shortcomings there and 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.280 we've seen a lot of different species going extinct or 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:06.480 decreasing populations of certain organisms. One example is the northern 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.760 white rhinoceros, which is functionally extinct because there are only 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.640 two females left. That's something that I don't think I 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.320 think about when I think about, Okay. 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.400 This species is going extinct. I'm just like, oh, okay, well, 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.200 we want every species to live. We want all these 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.159 animals to live. But I don't think about how it 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.760 affects the food chain and everything else. 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.000 I think we know there are scientists, and sometimes these 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.640 feel like the most appealing scientists that are tracking what's 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.240 happening with different wildlife and animals. Like when I think 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.000 about what Steve Erwin used to do, and basically everybody 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.479 on National Geographic Right, they're doing the glamorous science. They're 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:43.760 saving the wildlife. 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:45.960 Yes, and I think one of the other things that 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.679 we know is that being able to create more balance 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:52.200 with biodiversity isn't easy, and so it takes a lot 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.200 from a lot of different types of scientists and people 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.400 just generally making sure that we have the biodiversity that 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.640 we need have a balanced ecosystem. 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:03.960 Yeah, I think that's right. You know, that's something we 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.200 talked about keeping that type balance for the ecosystem back 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.800 in the Truth Pie episode, and we've touched on it 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.800 a little bit even in our early Coronavirus episode where 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:18.279 we talked about the more expansion of human behavior. So, 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.760 you know, city and suburban sprawl, as they encroach on 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:25.720 wildlife areas or areas where different animals are living, we're 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.320 somehow having an effect on them. Right. We might think 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:30.560 it's positive that we're putting that bird feeder out, but like, 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:32.760 is this the best thing? Is that enough? 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:33.240 You know? 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:34.680 What should we be doing? 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:35.320 Right? 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.320 And I guess I'm already asking questions, So we're now 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:39.440 we're at what do we want to know? Yes? 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:45.039 I want to know the intricacies of what these types 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.640 of scientists, like, what their day to day would be like. 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.440 Yes, And I think an intersection of some topics that 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.679 we've been interested in is for this episode, the biodiversity, 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.760 but also climate change. How is that affecting animals? A 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.520 lot of times we think about climate change just affecting humans, 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.320 but what about everybody else? Their habitats are. 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:08.400 Changing absolutely, And I think another question that that leads 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:12.800 to is how our behavior as human animals, How are 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:14.800 we affecting the ecosystem? 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:17.880 Yeah, because I think there are a lot of misconceptions 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:22.160 about how helpful who we are, and so I think 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.280 i'd like to low, you know, what's the realty. I 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:36.520 think we're ready to jump into the dissection. 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.440 Our guest for today's lab is doctor ray Winn Grant. 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.800 I'm doctor ray Win Grant. I am a wildlife ecologist. 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:51.680 I am a national geographic explorer. I'm a professor and 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:57.320 a storyteller and an intersectional person and a scientist. 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.000 As a large carnivoy ecologist, Doctor Wynn has studied the 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.279 impact of human activity on the behavior of black bears 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.679 in northeastern Montana, but she's also done research on African 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.200 lions in rural Kenya and Tanzania, gorillas and chimpanzees in 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.800 the Congo Basin, and grizzly bears in Yellowstone. What have 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:16.080 you been doing. 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:20.200 Where in the world is Carmen San Diego. Where in 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:28.520 the world is doctor ray Wynn Grant. This isn't the 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.360 first time we've talked about ecology on the show. Our 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:36.200 very first lab on Cuffing season was with doctor Alejandra 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.240 Trio a behavioral ecologists. 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:42.440 And ecology is the study of the relationship between living organisms, 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:46.040 that's including humans and their environment, and so much has 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:48.840 learned about those relationships through collecting data. 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.400 When I was in graduate school, one of my professors said, 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.360 ecology is essentially just counting things. You know, how many 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.520 mountain lions are in this space, how many mountains per 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.720 square kilometer or per one hundred square kilometers. So data 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.040 collection is the exciting stuff out in the field in 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.920 remote parts of the world, camping for days or weeks 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.320 tracking wild animals. 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.239 It feels like doctor Wyngrant does it all. She collects 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:17.800 all kinds of data out in the field, everything from 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:22.240 parasitic load and a particular species to performing dental exams, 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.120 which we know from our conversation with doctor Johnson in 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.280 Lab fifty four can be an indicator for overall health. 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:30.640 All of this helps her understand the health of a 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:34.720 particular animal. She'll also fit animals with a GPS collar 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.240 so she can track migration patterns over time. 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.320 And then what is equal is important, but definitely less 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:44.600 glamorous is the data analysis part, where I'm sitting in 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:49.240 front of computer and doing high level statistics to better 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:50.800 understand my data. 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.480 That's always the least glamorous part. And it feels like, 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:55.600 no matter what your job is, everybody has to do 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:59.520 their time in spreadsheets, right. There's just no way around it, Excel. 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:02.520 So you may be wondering why is doctor wyn Grant 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:04.160 collecting all this data. 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:07.320 Well, it's because data helps us understand the biodiversity of 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:08.880 a particular environment. 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.720 Biodiversity is like the diversity of life, you know, That's 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:12.320 what it means. 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.240 Humans depend on the planet's biodiversity for a number of things, 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.560 including food, fuel, fresh water, and medicine. And we're not 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.880 the only ones depending on the planet's biodiversity. Other animals 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:22.920 and species are too. 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:24.720 All of this kind of reminds me of when we 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:29.000 were talking about how the supply chain was affected by COVID, 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.560 and we talked about it in our live show about 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.720 how when there was a traffic jam in Virginia it 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.000 affected the grocery stores in my neighborhood for weeks because 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:41.920 those trucks can show up. So the biodiversity in the 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:46.920 ecosystem is it feels like the supply chain for the ecosystem, 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.800 where when you lose one aspect of it, then it 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:51.400 affects the entire system. 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:52.679 And so I think that's a good point. But I 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.240 think the difference is it's even worse right in nature 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.160 because when you lose biodiversity, there's not another truck to bring. 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:00.800 It back, right, So, like imagine and if it just 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.199 completely went away, then what do we do. Then we 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:05.440 have to be walking around trying to figure out where 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:06.360 we can get food from. 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:08.480 And it's not just one thing that happens. Then, So 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:12.160 then if you think I'm a predator, in my average 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:15.040 prey that I normally use for fuel for energy is 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.600 now gone. Now I'm looking to something else, and so 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.240 I'm going to graze on that. But now that population 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.079 begins to dwindle, and whatever was before using that animal 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.720 as it's source of nutrition, now it's affected, and so 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.360 the whole thing begins to crumble. It's a ripple effect. 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:31.760 The gray wolf is an apex predator, and you may 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.760 think Oh, they don't really matter that much. But if 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.040 you go back and look at the history, whenever gray 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:43.600 wolves were overhunted, their prey overgrazed the land, causing extinction 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:44.800 of certain vegetation. 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:47.240 I wish we could pull that clip from a lion 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.880 King where mufass is like the antelope eth the grass 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.400 and then we eat the antelope, and so it's the 0:10:53.440 --> 0:11:04.200 circle of life. Yes, well, MOVEASA said it best and 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.760 it still holds true. It may be surprising, but biodiversity 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:13.199 conservation is facing a data shortage, especially with invertebrates, so 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.280 animals that don't have a spine, plants and fish. We 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.120 still need more data collectors like doctor Wynn Grant. 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.240 Yeah, I mean part of it is resources to collect 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.320 these things. Invertebrates are small, they're hard to track, they're 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.360 hard to find. You got to look under logs and 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:30.880 you know they exist in these different places. There are 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.360 only so many people doing this work. It's expensive, it's costly. 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:38.320 It's longitudinal, so you can capture what something looks like 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:40.560 in twenty twenty, So, for example, there were so many 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.640 gray wolves in twenty twenty that US Regulating Agency said, 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.520 this is no longer an endangered species here we are 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.080 February twenty twenty two. It is an endangered species. So 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.319 if you think about that, unless you are tracking these 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:58.600 different species all the time, you're only capturing them at 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:00.920 singular moments and you don't get the full picture. And 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.400 so it would be so expensive, so time consuming to 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:09.000 constantly track every single species. So we just simply don't 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.840 have the ability to do that. And sometimes what happens 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.120 because we don't have that ability is that we don't 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:18.559 realize when there are declining populations until something's already extinct 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.679 and you can't find it anymore. There's so much biodiversity 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.240 on our planet, but there's also so much that we 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.080 don't know. Just think about the ocean, which covers about 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.079 seventy one percent of the Earth. We haven't even explored 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:31.920 over eighty percent of it. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.360 See, this is why I'm more afraid of the ocean 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:35.760 than I am of space. 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:38.400 You do say that, you say that a lot. 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:39.520 I don't know what's in there. 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:44.160 Jesus, I'm leaning towards you were right. I'm not going 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:44.640 down there. 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.080 My sister was asking me, would you rather live at 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.920 the bottom of the ocean or in space? I said, 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.280 absolutely space. We don't know what's down there. 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.839 People think the bottom of the ocean is like Bikini Bottom. 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.679 It ain't. Those are shallow waters where SpongeBob. 0:12:58.280 --> 0:12:59.600 Is Smogebob being down there. 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.160 No, it's dark. Man at the bottom of the ocean, 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:04.600 it's dark and we. 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.480 Don't know what's down there. You think a shark is scared, 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:10.760 imagine a shark that ain't never seen the sun. I 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:19.360 don't want to run up against that thing. Biodiversity is 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:23.520 more than just variety. It also includes variability of life 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:27.640 at multiple levels, like species richness, which is the total 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:31.560 number of species within an area, genetic diversity which is 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:36.000 the total variety of genes within a single species, endemic 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.280 species which is species that occur in one place and 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:43.600 nowhere else in the world. And the fourth is ecosystem diversity, 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.720 which is the total number of ecosystems in that area. 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:50.000 And we can't talk about biodiversity without the context of 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:54.640 the environment, so not all ecosystems are created equal. Biodiversity 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.920 is highly concentrated in tropical ecosystems, so rainforests, core reefs, 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.280 and savannahs, and those contain over seventy five percent of 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:04.600 known non marine species. 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.680 Climate change has a huge effect on these ecosystems and 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.560 continues to threaten our planet's biodiversity. We're going to get 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:13.200 into that later in the episode. 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.960 One of the things I love about the word biodiversity 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:18.880 is that I think it's pretty straightforward in terms of 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.680 understanding it, and it's measurable. In my work, I mostly 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:24.920 focus on like one or two species at a time, 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:27.560 so it's again really straightforward for me to measure the 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.040 amount of biodiversity, like how many mountain lions are in 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.760 this space? How many mountain liines per square kilometer or 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:35.360 per hundred square kilometers. 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:39.080 Sometimes, though, collecting this data is more challenging than just counting. 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.040 I'll give you an example. Every so often i'll do 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:46.400 a little project in the tropics, and tropical ecosystems are 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:49.600 often places of tremendous biodiversity. There's all these plants, there's 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:51.680 all these insects, there's all these animals, there's all these everything. 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.680 Doctor Wngrant and a couple other scientists were in the 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:59.160 tropics to document the biodiversity in a rainforest in Madagascar. 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.160 A certain species may be difficult to observe if you 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.840 can't measure an organism directly, though you can do it 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.160 by proxy. If you know some of the organism's friends, 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:11.440 or if you know some of the predators or the 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.960 organisms prey, you can use those to help you tell 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.440 the story about the animal you're actually interested in. 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.240 And one of the ways that I learned through this 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.240 that you can measure biodiversity in a space is through 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:30.360 blood from leeches. There's some emerging techniques from some really 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:35.040 awesome scientists where they are actually taking leeches instead of 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.160 looking for the animal. Maybe you're looking for, you know, 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.400 a fusa, right, that's a kind of like a cat species, 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.560 large predator and Madagascar, and you can't find any, it 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.720 doesn't mean it's not there, because they're very elusive. So 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:50.200 taking a couple leeches and looking and taking the blood 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.600 that the leeches have sucked and analyzing the different DNA 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.600 in the leech blood, we'll tell you what it's been 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:58.920 feeding on. And maybe it's been feeding on a fusa. 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.200 Maybe it's been feeding on a lot of fusa, And 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.360 that means they're there even though we never saw them. 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:06.000 It means they're there and they're not extinct. And so 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.720 that I think is just this rad way of understanding 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.360 biodiversity because it's not always going to be in our face. 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:16.680 Using DNA extracted from leeches is a more indirect way 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.720 of measuring biodiversity in an environment, and it can be 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.320 especially useful for more elusive species. But when it comes 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:27.280 to large predators like bears, doctor Wingrant's approaches a lot 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.040 more straightforward. So at this point we really needed doctor 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.040 wind Grant to walk us through what it's actually like 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.440 trapping bears for data collection. How does she do that. 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:39.120 For a bear? For a mountain line? We have a 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:41.640 proper trap, right, it's like a big barrel. We call 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:43.880 it a culvert trap or barrel trap. It's like a 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:48.200 bear sized barrel. Of course, there's like windows, and you know, 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.880 it's like open air. And then on one end it 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.960 has a gait like a trap door, and so you 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.800 put some bait in the back and then the bear smells, 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:59.880 it walks into the trap, grabs for the bait, and 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.000 then the door shuts, and then the door also sends 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:04.879 a little signal text message to my phone. 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.040 That's a text I'm not answering, I'm sorry, I just 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:09.800 have to leave it on My phone is on do 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:10.320 not disturb. 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:12.040 I don't want to know what that bear is up. 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.360 To, and then I go and from there, I can 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:18.120 either use a dart gun, but usually if the bear 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.200 is trapped, I will just use what we call a 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.320 jab stick, which literally just looks like a stick. You know, 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.440 if you're playing pool with a little syringe at the end, 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.000 and you just like get the bear in its shoulder 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.480 or it's a little hip and you give it it's 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.600 a little sedative, and then in five minutes it, you know, 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.080 falls asleep and then you open the door and that's 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.240 when you know, you get pictures of me like handling 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:42.640 a bear. It's sedated and it's asleep. 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.000 And at that point doctor Wingrant can give the bear 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.840 a checkup, take its temperature, weigh and measure it, check 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:52.240 its overall health, and then she attaches a GPS collar. 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.960 Haul the bear out of the trap, put it somewhere 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:58.400 nice and shady, put a little water out, and get 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:00.320 out of there and wait for it to wake up up. 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:04.200 And sometimes I hide and watch it wake up, but 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:06.680 usually I just get out of there so that when 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.439 it does come to, it's not frightened by the presence 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:11.040 of a person or just doesn't get used to the 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.520 presence of a person and that's it, and then I 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:15.520 am able to track that bear, you know, for a 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:16.000 long time. 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.000 If we haven't already made it clear, biodiversity is important. 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:23.040 If hypothetically the earth we're hanging on biothread, then biodiversity 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.240 is that thread. So we're going to take a quick 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:26.919 break and when we get back, we're going to talk 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:46.760 about how to preserve and protect biodiversity. 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:52.639 We're back, but before we get back into what we 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.320 can do to protect biodiversity, let's quickly talk about next 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.960 week's lab. We're talking nuclear energy with doctor Marina Robinson's 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.080 note in nuclear energy is something that I feel like 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.040 we've all heard about but don't know much about. So 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.399 we're getting into the science, politics, risks, and the potential 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:08.560 with nuclear energy. 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:12.400 I can't wait for that episode. Let's get back to today's lab. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.359 We're talking to doctor Ray winn Grant, and before the 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:18.920 break we cover biodiversity House measure and why it's important. 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.320 But now we're going to turn our focus to conservation. 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:24.720 And when you think about it, biodiversity and conservation go 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:25.560 hand in hand. 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:28.719 I do wildlife conservation, so I am very very very 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:33.240 much actively in the business of conserving life on Earth. 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.960 There are a lot of different kinds of conservation environmental, animal, marine, 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.359 and even human conservation. The one thing they all have 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.359 in common is the goal to protect and preserve living things. 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.879 But that doesn't mean non living materials don't play an 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:48.600 important role. 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.240 One of the beautiful things about our natural world is 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:55.119 that it is both biotic and abiotic. So conservation, you know, 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.919 if it's complete and comprehensive, should address water, you know, 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.760 which is not alive, and should address a which is 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.760 not alive and soil. Our biotic environment and biodiversity does 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.919 depend on the abiotic environment as well, and so conservation 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:10.360 needs to be comprehensive. 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:14.280 That's right. Conservation is intersectional. It depends on the interactions 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:16.880 of many different living and non living things in order 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:18.840 to sustain a habitable environment. 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:23.600 The United States has a history of looking at one species, right, 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.119 like one animal, and being like, okay, we need to 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:27.879 save this one animal in this one place. 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.359 Go. I'm sure you've heard some examples of these types 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:35.000 of efforts, you know, save the snow leopards, the pandas, 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:38.440 the whales. And yes, focusing on the specific endangered species 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:40.360 is important, but in the. 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:44.000 Past that's really missed the point, right, It's missed like, Okay, well, actually, 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.560 maybe we need to like save the ecosystem and enhance 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.199 the ecosystem, and maybe that means that we don't put 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:51.600 as many protections for this one animal. Maybe we lose 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:53.200 some more of those animals. But what if we keep 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:56.240 the water or keep the soil bacteria and that's actually 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:58.800 what we need, or keep the insect community and you know, 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.040