Show Notes
If you’ve ever watched the TV show Survivor, you know the rules: outwit, outplay, outlast.
But in the animal kingdom, Survivor isn’t a game– in a very real way, it’s adapt, or…
And as climate change intensifies and human disasters reshape the environment, animals are being forced to come up with new ways to cope- fast!
In this season 6 premiere, host Dr. Kaylee Byers explores some winning (and losing) survival strategies. First up, wildlife biologist Dr. Kendall Calhoun takes us into the aftermath of wildfires to see how different animals are adapting to an ever-changing landscape. Then, evolutionary biologist Dr. Cara Love brings us to her work in Chernobyl, where a population of wolves is living a radioactive life– and their genomes could even offer clues for cancer treatment.
Highlights 04:58 Deer vs. Squirrels – Who’s Built to Survive a Wildfire? 12:27 Barry the Bear – The 500-Pound Bear Who Moved In After a Fire 19:57 Chernobyl’s wolves – Survival in a Radioactive World
Sources FACT SHEET: Climate change and wildfires - Climate Institute Movement behavior in a dominant ungulate underlies successful adjustment to a rapidly changing landscape following megafire - Movement Ecology 40 Years After Chernobyl, Wolves May Be Adapting to Live With Radiation - Science Alert Signatures of Radiation-Induced Stress and Putative Selection on Immune Targets in Chornobyl Wolves - Molecular Ecology Surviving in a poisoned land: Chernobyl's wildlife is different, but not in the ways you might think - BBC What We Know About the Chernobyl Animal Mutations - ThoughtCo.
More from Nice Genes!
Artificial Intelligence has gone from science fiction to something that is almost impossible to avoid in the day-to-day. But what happens when AI intersects with our DNA?
Many rare genetic diseases are caused by a “typo” in our DNA. For most, fixing that spelling mistake has been out of reach. But a recent clinical trial has changed everything, opening up the door for possible cures we never thought were possible through a cutting-edge gene-editing tool called prime editing.
For the past 25 years, we’ve been hearing that male contraceptives are just a few years away. And then a few more… and then some more after that. So for something that has been in development for such a long time, what is with the hold up?
Have you heard about the radioactive wolves in Chernobyl? Or the latest gene-editing tech that’s curing rare diseases? Or that male birth control might be on the horizon? No?!
This episode was originally released on August 2, 2022