“Man Vs Bear” host Casey Anderson explains why grizzly bears are such fascinating animals, and the clever tricks they and other animals use to survive. You’ll also learn about “mast years” when trees sync their seed production. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about “mast years,” times when trees sync their seed production: https://curiosity.im/2sYiGs2 More about Man Vs. Bear: Man Vs. Bear on Discovery — https://www.discovery.com/shows/man-vs-bear Get to know Bart, Honey Bump, and Tank, the grizzly athletes of Man Vs. Bear [VIDEO] — https://go.discovery.com/tv-shows/man-vs-bear/full-episodes/bart-honey-bump-and-tank More about Casey Anderson on Discovery — https://www.discovery.com/profiles/casey-anderson Casey Anderson’s official website — http://caseyanderson.tv/ Follow @Grizanderson on Twitter — https://twitter.com/Grizanderson Follow @grizzlyguy on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/grizzlyguy/ Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing! Just click or tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
“Man Vs Bear” host Casey Anderson explains why grizzly bears are such fascinating animals, and the clever tricks they and other animals use to survive. You’ll also learn about “mast years” when trees sync their seed production.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about “mast years,” times when trees sync their seed production: https://curiosity.im/2sYiGs2
More about Man Vs. Bear:
Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing! Just click or tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/tool-using-animals-w-man-vs-bear-host-casey-anderson-and-trees-syncing-seed-production
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about synchronized seed production in trees. Then, you’ll learn about surprisingly smart animals and how they can use tools, from adventurer and filmmaker Casey Anderson.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
'Mast Years' Are When Trees Sync Their Seed Production — https://curiosity.im/2QXZzIO (due from freelancer 12/6) (in this doc) (Ashley)
If you have oak trees in your neighborhood, perhaps you've noticed that some years the ground is carpeted with their acorns, while other years there are hardly any. Biologists call this pattern "masting,” and many other types of trees show similar synchronization in seed production. The question is: why and how do trees do it? Is it cued by the weather, or are the trees talking to each other? Whatever the answer, we can’t but be amazed at the ingenious strategies devised by nature.
Let’s first consider why. If trees coordinate their seed production, seed-eating animals and insects are likely to get full before they eat all the seeds produced in a mast year, leaving the rest to sprout. Also, squirrels will bury more of the seeds instead of eating them immediately, thereby spreading oaks across the landscape.
But how do trees synchronize their seed production to get these benefits?
First, producing a big crop of seeds takes a lot of energy. So, trees may need to skip years in order to focus on growing or replenishing stored starches.
Weather conditions are obviously also important, especially spring weather. A cold snap that freezes the flowers of the tree means the tree can't produce many seeds the following fall. A drought during the summer could also kill developing seeds. Trees will often shut the pores in their leaves to save water, which reduces their ability to take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. Because all the trees within a local area are experiencing essentially the same weather, these environmental cues can help coordinate their seed production, acting like a reset button they've all pushed at the same time.
A third intriguing possibility that researchers are still investigating is that trees are "talking" to each other via chemical signals. Scientists know that when a plant is damaged by insects, it often releases chemicals into the air that signal to its other branches and to neighboring plants that they should turn on their defenses. Similar signals could potentially help trees coordinate seed production.
So, the next time you take an autumn walk, take a moment to pause under your local oak tree — you might just see (or hear) evidence of this amazing process.
[NHTSA]
CODY: Today’s episode is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Everyone knows about the risks of driving drunk. You could get in a crash. People could get hurt or killed. But let’s take a moment to look at some surprising statistics. Almost 29 people in the United States die every day in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes. That’s one person every 50 minutes. Even though drunk-driving fatalities have fallen by a third in the last three decades, drunk driving crashes still claim more than 10,000 lives each year.
ASHLEY: Many people are unaware that driving while high can be just as dangerous. In 2015, 42% of drivers killed in crashes tested positive for drugs. Not so harmless after all, is it? And get this, from 2007 to 2015, marijuana use among drivers killed in crashes doubled. The truth is driving while high is deadly. So, stop kidding yourself. If you’re impaired from alcohol or drugs, don’t get behind the wheel.
CODY: If you feel different you drive different. Drive high get a DUI.
ASHLEY: Drive sober or get pulled over.
Casey Anderson 1 — Grizzly bears are smart and use tools (2 segments) [4:04] 12/17
Grizzly bears are REALLY smart, and the stuff they can do is really cool. So today we have a guest who knows a lot about grizzlies, and he’s gonna help you get excited about this animal that you may not spend a lot of time thinking about in your daily life. Casey Anderson is a naturalist, adventurer, and filmmaker who’s been featured on everything from late-night talk shows to nature channels. Here’s our conversation with Casey.
[CLIP 3:32]
Don’t worry, you probably won’t have to worry about a grizzly bear raiding your campsite — at least, not if you live in most parts of the U.S. You’ll find grizzlies in Alaska, but in the lower 48 states, grizzly bears pretty much stick to the western part of Montana, northern Wyoming, and parts of Idaho, with a very small population coming down into the cascades of Washington. If a grizzly bear DOES find your food, though, then there’s a reason it may want to dig in.
[CLIP 0:32]
Talk about a steep grocery store bill — 40 pounds of food! If you were listening closely, you might’ve noticed Casey name-dropping a bear named Bart. Bart is one of three grizzlies who will be featured on a brand new TV show along with Casey Anderson. The show is called “Man Vs Bear,” and it’s an all-new competition series pitting humans against powerful grizzlies. Casey will be back on Curiosity Daily tomorrow to talk about why he thinks the show will be a great thing for grizzly bears. In the meantime, you can watch “Man Vs Bear” on Discovery Go, or catch it on the Discovery Channel Wednesdays at 9pm Eastern.
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Today’s first story was written by Emily Moran for The Conversation, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity.com.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. Curiosity Daily is produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!