To be a drug-sniffing dog you have to be impassionate, which is exactly what this golden retriever was not.
Though Roger flunked out of the Kaohsiung City police academy in Taiwan, his career in public service was not over, and has now captured the hearts of his people with his rescue efforts during Taiwan’s recent earthquake.
Striking the northern part of the island with a magnitude of 7.4, it caused a landslide in a popular national park that destroyed several buildings and claimed a dozen victims.
Roger flunked out of police academy for being too jubilant – credit Kaohsiung Fire Department
8-year-old Roger was quickly deployed to the area, where his exuberance and independent streak put him in good stead for locating the body of a 21-year-old victim who hadn’t been found.
Whether Chen Chih-san, captain of the rescue dog unit of the Kaohsiung Fire Department has other dogs that assisted in the rescue efforts, it was only Roger who captured the island nation’s hearts because of his earlier career setback and subsequent redemption arc.
“I’m not saying he was not good or that he didn’t get along with others. But the requirement for narcotic detection dogs is that they can’t be too restless and independent,” Chen said. “But (these attributes) are what we want in rescue dogs.”
These attributes were perfectly on show when he lunged for the reporter’s microphone as his handler was being interviewed by Taiwan’s official Central News Agency.
Having participated in 7 rescue organizations throughout his career, which included his being certified by the International Rescue Dog Organization in 2022, an accolade last achieved by a Taiwanese rescue dog in 2019, Roger’s retirement is fast approaching.
CNN reports that he will have a wonderful home suitable for an active precocious dog like him, but before he puts his paws up for his golden years, one family will have the closure of laying a loved one to rest because of his excellent nose and personality.
SHARE This Dog’s Career Calling With Your Friends On Social Media…
Quote of the Day: “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” – Rudyard Kipling
Photo by: Matt Botsford
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The Moon's shadow is seen covering portions of Canada and the U.S. in unique eclipse images taken from the International Space Station. Orbiting 260 miles above the Northeastern coast of the United States – NASA
The Moon’s shadow covering portions of Quebec and New Brunswick and the state of Maine – ISS / NASA
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station orbited right past the solar eclipse Monday and grabbed some intriguing photos.
The path of totality in the Moon’s shadow can be seen plunging the Northeastern coast of the US and part of Canada into darkness, while seven crew members watched from space.
Orbiting 260 miles above the ground, members of the Expedition 71 crew experienced the shadow, or umbra, moving across portions of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine.
Then, it was gone—because the ISS is traveling at 17,500 miles an hour.
Aboard the International Space Station to witness the celestial event were NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Tracy Dyson, as well as cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin.
The Moon’s shadow is seen covering portions of Canada and the U.S. in unique eclipse images taken from the International Space Station. Orbiting 260 miles above the Northeastern coast of the United States – NASA
Other satellites captured unique images like these, too.
WATCH the video from NASA and Starlink satellites below…
FLY THESE Across the Country By Sharing This on Social Media…
“Hello, uh, you ordered groceries? Your driver got arrested, so we’re delivering your groceries!”
It would have been difficult to summarize the sense of surprise that homeowner Joe Neu and his family felt when Florida police officers arrived carrying bags of produce and groceries.
The story made national news on Fox 35 Orlando, where in a neighborhood called Titusville on March 26, two police officers went “above and beyond” to finish the job that the man they had just arrested was carrying out.
Suspect Richard Robertson, 40, was wanted on felony charges both in Florida and Texas. Officers who spotted his plate numbers and pulled him over confirmed his identity, but also noticed a large delivery order in the car.
Having finished the “protect” part of the job, they switched over to the “serve” part, which had a woman in the home remarking that she would make sure the officers received Robertson’s tip.
Arriving at the house, the policewoman rang the doorbell, and video captured by the Ring camera on the door and shared on social media, shows her noting with a smile on her face “funny” while waiting for an answer.
“My dad was a police officer when I was growing up, so I have the utmost respect for them, so when I saw that, it was wonderful to see,” Mr. Neu told Fox.
WATCH the video below…
SHARE These Cops Protecting And Serving With Your Friends On Social Media…
A collared Mexican wolf around Eagle Creek - credit Aislinn Maestas, Public Domain
A collared Mexican wolf around Eagle Creek – credit Aislinn Maestas, Public Domain
The wild population of Mexican wolves saw another year of growth in 2023, according to the results of the annual survey published by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The 2023 population census revealed a minimum of 257 Mexican wolves distributed across Arizona and New Mexico. This increase marks the eighth consecutive year of population growth, the longest continuous streak since recovery efforts began.
The 2023 population minimum count represents a six percent increase from the minimum of 242 wolves counted in 2022.
“In the aggregate, the 2023 data points out that Mexican wolf recovery has come a long way since the first release,” said Jim deVos, Arizona Game and Fish Department Mexican Wolf Coordinator.
“Each year, the free-roaming Mexican wolf population numbers increase and the areas they occupy expand. Genetic management using pups from captivity is also showing results. In total, 99 pups carefully selected for their genetic value have been placed in 40 wild dens since 2016, and some of these fosters have produced litters of their own. While recovery is in the future, examining the last decade of data certainly provides optimism that recovery will be achieved,” added deVos.
Mexican wolf population information is gathered from November through February by the Interagency Field Team. During this time, the team conducts ground and aerial surveys, using a variety of methods, including remote cameras, scat collection, and visual observation. Counting the population at the same time each winter allows for comparable year-to-year trends at a time of year when the Mexican wolf population is most stable.
The field team documented additional success with fostering efforts in 2023. To date, a minimum of 15 fostered Mexican wolf pups have survived to breeding age, and at least 10 fostered wolves have successfully bred and produced litters in the wild. Fostered Mexican wolves have produced more than 20 litters and several of those offspring have gone on to produce pups of their own.
“It’s encouraging to see success across the board with our recovery efforts,” said Brady McGee, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator. “Having fostered Mexican wolves survive, disperse, pair up, breed, and start packs of their own tells us that fostering is working. These genetically diverse wolves, which came from captivity as pups and were placed into wild dens, play a vital role in boosting the genetic diversity of the wild population.”
The Mexican wolf is listed separately from the gray wolf as an endangered subspecies under the federal Endangered Species Act. In 1977, the Service and its partners initiated efforts to conserve the subspecies by developing a bi-national captive breeding program stemming from just seven Mexican wolves. Mexican wolves were first reintroduced to the wild in 1998.
In addition to the minimum wild population, there are approximately 350 Mexican wolves currently maintained in more than 60 facilities throughout the United States and Mexico under the Mexican Wolf Saving Animals From Extinction program.
The only reason that any of these wolves are held in these facilities today is because of the work of Rory T. McBride, a legendary trapper of these beautiful animals who hung up his rifles and traps to work with the US government to rescue them from the brink of extinction.
A recognized subspecies, (Canis lupus baileyi) the Mexican wolf was extirpated from the United States in 1970, leaving only a small and reviled population hiding out in the remote reaches of northern Mexico. From the individuals McBride captured, the FWS was able to begin a captive breeding program, the fruits of which are on show today.
SHARE This Inspiring Trendline For The Cause Of Hearing Wolves Howl Out West…
Natalie Gilliard and her husband John Yacko - credit, Natalie Gilliard, released to the Post.
Natalie Gilliard and her husband John Yacko – credit, Natalie Gilliard, released to the Post.
From a small Vermont countryside community comes the story of two Long Islanders who ditched mowing their massive lawn and planted wildflowers instead—delighting the neighbors, birds, bees, and butterflies.
They’ve steadily grown their wildflower meadow to 2-1/2 acres, which has become so popular that it’s inspired others nearby to do the same.
Jonathan Yacko and Natalie Gilliard started their makeover during the pandemic when Gilliard lost her job and Yacko’s hours were cut. He still worked remotely for the same company he had when they lived on Long Island, and told the Washington Post that their 5-acre property in Chittenden used to boast a sea of grass that required a whole day to mow and trim.
Wanting to do something different, they explained their predicament of exhaustive mowing to a local whom they had befriended who just so happened to work for a company called American Meadows.
It would cost a couple hundred dollars and require a fair amount of initial work, but the friend suggested they plant a wildflower meadow that would grow on its own ever afterward.
They liked the idea and so ripped up an acre’s worth of grass, tugged out all the large stones, tilled the land, threw down the contents of a 50-pound bag of wildflower seed containing 27 species, and then waited.
In the spring of 2021, they arrived.
First came ‘baby’s breath’ or Gypsophila elegans, then came “red and yellow poppies, pink catchfly, bright orange sulphur cosmos, red columbine, and purple foxglove,” reports Vermont Public, which was the couple’s first taste of national media.
“We had no idea what we’d be looking at after we first planted the meadow, but that was part of the fun,” Yacko told the Post.
credit – Natalie Gilliard, released to the Post
“And what’s so cool is every couple of weeks the meadows look totally different,” Yacko said, this time to Vermont Public. “You don’t know exactly what’s gonna come up or when it’s going to come up and that’s part of the magic.”
The beauty of the meadow was striking, and soon it began to draw attention among the local community. People offered gratitude for coloring up their morning commute, people brought baked goods, bouquets, and most importantly for newcomers who had had difficulties meeting new people on Long Island, they brought friendship.
– credit, Natalie Gilliard, released to the Post.
Neighbors Jenna Baird and her partner Jacob Powsner were so inspired by the meadow that they asked to work together with Yacko and Gilliard on seeding another acre on their property to connect with an additional half-acre plot which the couple had started after their first dazzling year of blooms.
“We started this as not wanting to mow grass, never expecting it would become what it has,” Yacko said. “Now we’re helping the bees, we’re adding beauty to the landscape and we’re making the community happy.”
SHARE This Couple’s Beautiful Story And Even More Beautiful Meadow…
Passed in February, a massive subsidy program to help Indian households install rooftop solar panels in their homes and apartments aims to provide 30 gigawatt hours of solar power to the nation’s inventory.
The scheme, called PM-Surya Ghar, will provide free electricity to 10 million homes according to estimates, and the designing of a national portal—a sort of Healthcare.gov for solar panels—will streamline the process of installation and payment.
The program was cooked up because India had fallen woefully behind on its planned installations for rooftop solar. In many parts of the subcontinent, the sun is absolutely brutal and relentless, but by 2022, Indian rooftop solar power generation topped out at 11 gigawatts, which was 29 gigawatts under a national target set a decade ago.
Part of the challenge, Euronews reports, is that approval from various agencies and departments—as many as 21 different signatures in some cases—was needed to place a solar array on your house. Aside from this bureaucratic nightmare, the cost of installation was often higher than $5,000; more than half the average yearly income for a working Indian urbanite.
Under PM-Surya Ghar, subsidies for a 2-kilowatt solar array will cover as much as 60% of the installation costs, falling to 40% for arrays 3 kilowatts or higher. Loans set at around 7% interest rates will help families in need get started. 750 billion Indian rupees, or $9 billion has been set aside for the project.
Even in New Delhi, which can be covered in clouds and smog for days, solar users report saving hundreds during summer time on their electricity costs, with one apartment shaving $700 every month off energy bills.
PM-Surya Ghar is also seen as having the potential to cause a boom in the Indian solar market. Companies no longer have to go running around for planning and permitting requirements, and the government subsidies ensure their customer base can grow beyond the limits of household income.
SHARE This Ambitious Plan With Your Friends Worries About Climate Change…
Quote of the Day: “The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal Nature bade me weep no more.” – Mary Shelley
Photo by: Zooey (CC license)
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Irish wind turbines - David de la Iglesia Villar, marked CC License.
Irish wind turbines – David de la Iglesia Villar, marked CC License.
According to an energy think tank, Europe’s generation of 516.5 terawatt hours of renewable electricity in January and February satisfied 60% of overall power demand.
The generation is a year-over-year gain of 12% from the same period in 2023, and was driven by strong year-on-year growth in hydro and wind, and a rebound in nuclear.
Coinciding with this was a 12% year-over-year fall in the use of fossil fuels, with a 15% drop in energy from coal-fired power plants, the think tank Ember, reports.
Contrary to the assumption that this is the work of solar farms and wind turbines, the two fastest growing sources across Europe, the strong performance was led by nuclear, which grew 4% y-o-y, and hydropower which at 17.2% of total continental power demand was the highest percentage share of hydroelectricity ever generated in Europe.
Hydroelectricity use grew 23% y-o-y to 152 terawatt hours, led by Norway, France, Switzerland, and Portugal. This was six times the amount of Europe’s total solar power yield, which topped out at 24 TWh.
Wind power generated an impressive 137.5 TWh of electricity during the first two months of 2024, up 14%.
Several countries, like Ireland and Portugal, are recording single days or multi-day stretches in which a two-thirds majority or greater of their populations are using renewable energy entirely.
Additionally, European countries are coming up with clever as well as ambitious ideas for how to integrate more green energy sources into their communties; epitomized by Liverpool’s steadily advancing plan to build the world’s largest tidal power project across the Mersey river delta.
SHARE This Impressive Progression Towards Net-Zero On Social Media…
This photograph of a live Javan tiger was taken in 1938 in Ujung Kulon, at the western tip of Java Island, and published in Andries Hoogerwerf’s “Ujung Kulon The Land of the last Javan Rhinoceros.” credit - Andries Hoogerwerf via Wikimedia Commons
This photograph of a live Javan tiger was taken in 1938 in Ujung Kulon, at the western tip of Java Island, and published in Andries Hoogerwerf’s “Ujung Kulon The Land of the last Javan Rhinoceros.” credit – Andries Hoogerwerf via Wikimedia Commons
Ripi Yanuar Fajar and his four friends say they’ll never forget the evening after Indonesia’s Independence Day celebration in 2019 when they encountered a big cat roaming a community plantation in Sukabumi, West Java province.
Immediately after the brief encounter, Ripi, who happens to be a local conservationist, reached out to Kalih Raksasewu, a researcher at the country’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), saying he and his friends had seen either a Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas), a critically endangered animal, or a Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica), a subspecies believed to have gone extinct in the 1980s but only officially declared so in 2008.
About 10 days later, Kalih visited the site of the encounter with Ripi and his friends. There, Kalih found a strand of hair snagged on a plantation fence that the unknown creature was believed to have jumped over. She also recorded footprints and claw marks that she thought resembled those of a tiger.
Kalih then sent the hair sample and other records to the West Java Provincial Conservation Agency, or BKSDA, for further investigation. She also sent a formal letter to the provincial government to follow up on the investigation request.
The matter eventually landed at BRIN, where a team of researchers ran genetic analyses to compare the single strand of hair with known samples of other tiger subspecies, such as the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) and a nearly century-old Javan tiger pelt kept at a museum in the West Java city of Bogor.
“After going through various process of laboratory tests, the results showed that the hair sample had 97.8% similarities to the Javan tiger,” Wirdateti, a researcher with BRIN’s Biosystemic and Evolutionary Research Center, said at an online discussion hosted by Mongabay Indonesia on March 28.
The discussion centered on a study published March 21 in the journal Oryx in which Wirdateti and colleagues presented their findings that suggested that the long-extinct Javan tiger may somehow—miraculously—still be prowling parts of one of the most densely populated islands on Earth.
Their testing compared the Sukabumi hair sample with hair from the museum specimen collected in 1930, as well as with other tigers, Javan leopards, and several sequences from GenBank, a publicly accessible database of genetic sequences overseen by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The study noted that the supposed tiger hair had a sequence similarity of 97.06% with Sumatran tigers and 96.87% with Bengal tigers. Wirdateti also conducted additional interviews with Ripi and his friends about the encounter they’d had.
A Javan tiger pelt from 1930 that is stored at the Bogor Zoological Museum in West Java. Image by Rahmadi Rahmad/Mongabay Indonesia.
“I wanted to emphasize that this wasn’t just about finding a strand of hair, but an encounter with the Javan tiger in which five people saw it,” Kalih said.
“There’s still a possibility that the Javan tiger is in the Sukabumi forest,” she added. “If it’s coming down to the village or community plantation, it could be because its habitat has been disturbed. In 2019, when the hair was found, the Sukabumi region had been affected by drought for almost a year.”
The single strand of hair from the suspected Javan tiger collected from a community plantation in Sukabumi, West Java. Image courtesy of the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency.
Poaching and habitat loss in Java, an island the size of Mississippi and home to more than half of Indonesia’s 270 million residents, were thought to have driven the extinction of the Javan tiger, one of three subspecies of tigers once found in Indonesia (the third is the Bali tiger, Panthera tigris balica, also officially declared extinct in 2008). The Sumatran tiger is listed as critically endangered, or one step away from vanishing in the wild, due to hunting and rapid deforestation on its native island.
“Through this research, we have determined that the Javan tiger still exists in the wild,” Wirdateti said. “For this reason, follow-up field studies are needed, such as observations through camera traps, looking for droppings or footprints and scratches.”
Didik Raharyono, a Javan tiger expert who wasn’t involved in the study but has conducted voluntary expeditions with local wildlife awareness groups since 1997, said the number of previously reported sightings coupled with the new scientific findings must be taken seriously. He called on the environment ministry to draft and issue a policy on measures to find and conserve the Javan tiger.
“What’s most important is the next steps that we take in the future,” Didik said.
Brooke Smith-Sanders, and husband Walt Sanders with their twins Maverick and Shepherd - SWNS
Brooke Smith-Sanders, and husband Walt Sanders with their twins Maverick and Shepherd – SWNS
For most of us, a gym partner is someone who is always reliable and can keep us excited to start and motivated to push on during tough workouts.
But for Brooke Smith-Sanders, her gym buddy became so much more than that when she volunteered to carry Brooke’s child.
Brooke was born without a uterus, which was first discovered when she was 17. With the understanding that she would never carry a child, she and her husband Walt Sanders went straight for IVF with a surrogate when they were ready to have kids.
They started attempting the surrogacy in 2018 but it fell through at the last minute when the local woman discovered she was already pregnant, and then again after a lab accident resulted in all of Brooke’s eggs dying after being exposed to carbon dioxide.
“It was such a heartbreaking disappointment because we had finally got to the point of starting and it just fell apart,” said Smith-Sanders.
That’s when Brooke’s CrossFit buddy Dawn Crawley agreed to become their surrogate instead, even at the age of 47.
The third time was lucky, and Crawley became pregnant with eventual twins Maverick and Shepherd.
Walt Sanders, Brooke Smith-Sanders, and surrogate Dawn Crawley.
Brooke said they feel “so blessed” and want to share their story to give other families hope when going through infertility.
“I am adopted—someone gave me a chance from birth,” said Crawley. “I wanted to repay that any way that I could. Something just said to me ‘I need to help them.’ Knowing that I was able to help them makes me so happy, not just for the parents, for those babies too.”
The daughter Maverick and son Shepherd were born on November 1st, and were small but healthy as a result of pre-eclampsia which saw Dawn rushed to the hospital a month early and the twins staying in the NICU for three weeks with oxygen and feeding tubes until they were strong enough to go home.
Brooke said that the process was at many times difficult, as will be the case for almost any couple seeking to conceive via IVF.
“For a long time I was sad I couldn’t carry them, but I did my part to bring them into this world,” said Brooke, who added that anyone going through what she went through should seek guidance and advice as early on as possible.
She feels blessed to have two 4-year-old reminders every day that it was all worth it.
SHARE This Inspiring Story Of Family Planning With Your Friends…
A red-headed Brit named Russ Cook claims he’s become the first person ever to run across the entire length of Africa after crossing a finishing line in Tunisia.
The feat was immense, filled with danger, and when the self-styled “Hardest Geezer” arrived at the shores of the Mediterranean, he had run just over 385 marathons in 352 days; a total of over 10,000 miles.
More importantly as Cook sees it, his inspirational accomplishment has raised over £650,000, close to a million dollars, for a selection of charities.
His route crossed 16 countries, deserts, rainforests, and mountains, and saw him get entangled in visa issues, muggings, sandstorms, injuries, sickness, and snowstorms. It started in South Africa’s remote southern town of La Agulhas and landed him on a Tunisian beach with a strawberry daiquiri in his hand.
BBC reports that his route started in South Africa, and was followed by Namibia, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria, and Tunisia.
His first 60 marathons went off without a hitch when he started in April 2023, but it was in Angola that he and his team were robbed at gunpoint, with money, passports, and phones all stolen.
The next major setback occurred in Cameroon where he was constantly battling food poisoning. After crossing Nigeria to Benin he felt like a shell of himself. By that point he had run something like 210 marathons.
Reaching the very unique country of Mauritania on day 267, people were endlessly stopping on the roads to offer water and supplies. But then, unable to transit into the vast Algerian Sahara because of visa difficulties, he needed the help of the British government to intervene on his behalf.
Quote of the Day: “Truth is strong, and sometime or other will prevail.” – Mary Astell
Photo by: Gavin Allanwood
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
The Indian megacity of Bengaluru typically sizzles in the summer months when citizens are taught to save water, but one man’s outreach to students in the school system has saved millions of gallons of water this year alone.
Environmentalist Dr. Hariharan Chandrashekhar began the Rain Reach program in Bengaluru schools after a spate of mass well digging rapidly depleted the water supplies to 8.5 million inhabitants, and around 40 schools inside the city.
The program is introduced to kids aged 9 to 15 to ensure that they understand how to avoid wasting water from an early age and go on to build up a life-long habit.
Focusing on collecting and storing rainwater, using rain gauges to monitor and budget rainfall, treating and reusing wastewater for non-hygienic purposes like irrigation and toilet flushing, the program has so far saved over 9 million gallons (34 million liters) of water.
Water has been a major target of private and public sector Indian action recently. Almost 79 million households have been provided with access to a tap water connection since the nationwide initiative called Jal Jeevan launched in August 2019, bringing 56% of rural households in the nation tap water.
In India’s remote Western Ghats, a gorgeous blue and yellow gecko species has been named in honor of Vincent Van Gogh, whose painting Starry Night, was the first thing that entered Ishan Agarwal’s mind when he saw it.
Found during one of many expeditions into these underdeveloped, underexplored mountains running parallel to India’s western coastline, it enriches both the eyes and the scientific literature.
Belonging to the genus Cnemapsis, it is one of 2,300 members worldwide and over one hundred in India alone. Not so long ago, however, there were only a few dozen.
“We have incredibly diverse fauna, but we know little about it,” Agarwal told Nat Geo of the Western Ghats, in which he has spent 12,400 hours exploring.
Cnemapsis vangoghi was found during one such exploration, after the flash of indigo and mustard yellow which caught Agarawl’s eye.
It looked similar to another gecko of the same genus, C. galaxia, but during lab work, his suspicions were confirmed that it was actually a new species. It and a second, closely related species, are described for the first time in a study published in the natural ZooKeys.
Found in the Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve, Agarawl suspects that this gecko is receiving much greater protection than many of India’s native reptiles because of its location under the ‘umbrella’ of the charismatic cat.
Umbrella conservation strategies allow naturalists to advocate for the conservation of a single species whose needs of territory, prey species, and protection are largest, and ipso facto helps conserve dozens or even hundreds of other species that share that territory.
In this case, protecting tigers means protecting geckos.
Agarwal says that new techniques for studying DNA allow for much greater specificity in describing species, and that the genus Cnemapsis is “ridiculously diverse.”
SHARE This Starry-Skinned Gecko And The Intrepid Scientist Who Discovered Him…
A digitally made image of the University of Leeds' Research Farm with attached fly breeding center - credit, Entocycle.
A digitally made image of the University of Leeds’ Research Farm with attached fly breeding center – credit, Entocycle.
There’s been a lot of talk in the media over the last few years about insect protein, whether used in fake beef, protein bars, or other processed applications, but a startup in the UK has come up with a way to integrate bugs into the food supply chain in a way that not only cuts emissions, but doesn’t upset the stomach.
The now 9-year-old start-up Entocycle uses bugs to replace corn, soy, and fishmeal as high-quality animal feed for pigs and chickens.
Of the major meat sources around the world, chickens and pigs are known in the industry as ‘monogastrics’ meaning they have one stomach as compared with other meat sources like beef, sheep, and goat, which are ruminants, meaning they have several stomachs.
Ruminants eat only grass, roughage, and other vegetable material, but while chickens and pigs have been fed corn, soy, and other agricultural products for years, bugs would have made up an important and large part of their natural diets, especially for the latter, which were domesticated from tropical jungle fowl we must remember.
At Entocycle’s London development facility, thousands of black soldier fly larvae are turned into protein feed for pigs and chickens. This species of fly will eat almost any wasted food, making insect farming a double whammy for environmental waste management, as it offers the potential to divert food scraps from the landfills where they would normally generate methane, a potent, albeit short-lived, greenhouse gas.
“It is the quickest, cheapest, most sustainable insect to farm and it’s a non-disease, non-pest species found all over the world,” says Entocycle founder and chief executive Keiran Whitaker.
While it might seem that a fly wouldn’t be able to produce a sufficient amount of eggs to create enough food for all world poultry and pork farming, they actually do create a serious amount of protein. But it’s so much more than that.
A previous study published in 2021 found that incubating pig manure with black soldier fly larvae substantially reduced manure nutrient levels with reductions in nitrogen, carbon, energy, phosphorus, and potassium in the residual material, potentially decreasing the environmental problems caused by surplus manure on farms making its way into the river systems during heavy rains, a major problem in England for example.
These flies also have a positive effect on animal health, with several scientific studies conducted in recent years supportive of the benefits. A 2022 study found that the supplementation of black soldier fly larvae in pig diets had beneficial effects on the growth performance of pigs and on improving meat quality.
Because of this, a 40-foot walk-in fly breeding center developed by Entocycle was installed at the University of Leeds’ Research Farm, which tests out innovative agricultural technology on a farm that aims to be entirely circular.
Across the Atlantic, US food giant Cargill is already using insect feed in its pork and poultry operations, manufactured by a company called Innovafeed.
WATCH the story below from Reuters…
BUZZ Over To Your Friends’ Social Media Pages And Share This Exciting News…
Disaster struck a truck transporting 102,000 young salmon to a hatchery in Oregon when it overturned on the road and the giant fish tank it was carrying burst open.
However luck was on the side of the small fries, almost all of whom rode the wave of water out of the tank and into Lookingglass Creek, the waterway which connects with the hatchery they were traveling to.
The driver had just left a local hatchery in Elgin, Oregon, about 300 miles east of Portland with 80,000 pounds of salmon and water. His eventual destination was the Imnaha River near Lookingglass Hatchery in Northeast Oregon, but with early morning dew on the roads, the driver skidded while heading around a sharp curve and the yaw of the water-filled container brought it down onto its side before sending it sliding over the road and down into a rocky embankment.
It was one of the worst disasters in the history of the program, dating back to 1982, which brings salmon “smolts” or young salmon, from river hatcheries downstream to hatcheries stopped up by dams far upstream.
While 24,000 of the smolts weren’t able to flop their way from the bank to the river, 77,000 were.
Typically, the smolts are brought up to the river hatcheries a short time before their eventual journey to the Pacific Ocean.
At their destination on the Imnaha River, they were meant to acclimate for a few days before their 650-mile journey through the Snake and Columbia Rivers to the Pacific.
“They hitch a ride on the spring runoff, tail first, so there is less resistance, that way they can conserve energy until they get to the ocean,” said Andrew Gibbs, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s fish hatchery coordinator for eastern Oregon in an interview on Wednesday.
Even though they weren’t born there, just a short few days at the constructed pool in the Imnaha Rivee is enough for them to specifically remember the route back from the ocean, using a kind of reserve scent signal.
By placing smolts in various rivers, creeks, and tributaries, the state ensures that salmon are running back upstream past all manner of communities, both human and animal, that rely on them for food, commerce, and recreation.
“They kind of smell their way back,” Gibbs said. “It’s an incredible life history.”
SHARE This Flop Of Luck From Oregon With Your Friends…
Quote of the Day: “To love for the sake of being loved is human, but to love for the sake of loving is angelic.” – Alphonse de Lamartine
Photo by: Sebastián León Prado
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Artist impression of the Astroscale Prototype Servicer for Refueling (APS-R) – San Antonio's Southwest Research Institute / ASTROSCALE U.S. / SWNS
Artist impression of the Astroscale Prototype Servicer for Refueling (APS-R) – Credit: ASTROSCALE via SWNS
A spacecraft is being built that could orbit the Earth and aid other ships that need a refuel—extending their missions.
The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas, will build and test a small demonstration spacecraft as part of a $25.5 million Space Mobility and Logistics (SML) project funded by the U.S. Space Force (which was created in 2019 by Congress to “preserve U.S. space superiority”).
Led by prime contractor Astroscale, the spacecraft, called the Astroscale Prototype Servicer for Refueling (APS-R), will carry hydrazine propellant from a depot—also in orbit—to spacecrafts running low on fuel.
Scheduled to be launch-ready by 2026, the APS-R can service any spacecraft fitted with a compatible refueling port.
“Running low on fuel is a common issue for spacecraft in Earth orbit,” said SwRI Staff Engineer Steve Thompson, the SwRI project systems engineer. “When they have expended all of their fuel, their mission ends — even though the vehicle may be in otherwise excellent health.
“A refueling vehicle can extend those missions, and we can get additional lifetime out of spacecraft that are already in orbit.”
The APS-R will operate in geostationary orbit around the Earth, meaning it will follow a circular orbit in sync with the Earth’s rotational period of 24 hours.
“Recently, other approaches to life extension have emerged, such as a vehicle that can use its thrusters to push another spacecraft where it needs to go after it runs out of fuel,” Thompson said. “A refueling vehicle broadens life extension options with a flexible alternative.”
Over the next 16 months, SwRI will construct the host vehicle, which is quite small, in the Institute’s new processing facility.
The maximum dimensions are 24-by-28-by-45 inches when stowed for launch, and the total vehicle launch mass weighs just 437 pounds, including propellant.
When the host spacecraft is complete, SwRI will integrate the Astroscale-supplied payload and perform system-level environmental testing to prepare the vehicle for launch.
SHARE THE AWESOME INNOVATION With STEM and Space Lovers on Social Media…
Chris Bien with mammoth tooth she found on a beach – SWNS
Chris Bien with mammoth tooth she found on a beach – SWNS
[SWNS] – An amateur fossil hunter is celebrating a once-in-a-lifetime discovery after finding a huge mammoth tooth on a beach.
Chris Bien was visiting Holland-on-Sea, Essex, as part of her birthday celebrations when she took a walk on the beach with her husband Mark. She stopped to sit on a rock by the water’s edge when she looked down and saw a wavy line pattern in the gravel.
“I saw it poking out and thought it must be a tooth to have a pattern like that,” said the 56-year-old mother-of-one.
“I started scraping away with my hands but it was so deep in the ground that hands weren’t good enough. Mark and I had bought a trowel with us and so we dug it out that way – it was fully fossilized. (Watch the moment in a video below…)
“I was in disbelief. While we were digging it out I was hoping it was a mammoth tooth but I kept saying to my husband: ‘it can’t be’.
“I had said earlier that day ‘I’m going to find a mammoth’s tooth’ and then we had a moment where we just burst out laughing as we stood on the beach holding it.
“It is so beautiful with its ridges. I’m overjoyed.”
By Chris Bien via SWNS
The find is believed to be the root of the tooth and measures six-and-a-half to seven inches in depth and width, weighing over 4 pounds (2 kilos).
After seeking advice online, Chris believes the tooth could have belonged to a steppe mammoth, one of the largest mammoth species. They were ancestors of the woolly mammoth and roamed the earth around 1.8 million years ago.
Chris added that she thinks the fossil is only half a tooth as there’s only two inches of the chewing plate and the rest is the root, indicating some of it is missing.
She is going to preserve the tooth and it is already soaking in distilled water where it will stay for a few weeks. After drying out, it will be preserved in a coating of preservation glue and ethanol.
Chris volunteers for her local museum in Worthing and has been a part of the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society for 17 years.
The North Essex beaches are known for being a trove of fossilized treasure. Other finds she has made are mammoth leg and toe bones, and an Ice Age horse tooth and ankle bone.
“I want people to know about the deep, rich history behind this find.”
Watch the moment captured on a video…
ENCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS TO LOOK DOWN–By Sharing the Find on Social Media…
