Natural Selections

Wood ant colonies create noticeable hummocks in clearings and fields. The elaborate structures create a temperate micro-climate ideal for protecting larvae, the queen and her workers. And they are constantly "renovating" to match the weather. Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley talk about insect architecture.

The North Pole is up and the South Pole down, right?. Not really. And right here is right here, right? For the moment, maybe. But the earth turns and moves in its orbit around the sun which also moves, ad infinitum, and the ground you stand on was once underground, or underwater.Dr. Curt Stager and Martha Foley try to get to the bottom of up and uncover the whatness of where.

Dr. Curt Stager describes the differences between two variations of the white-throated sparrow; the white-striped form and the tan-striped form. Though the birds are from the same species and are complementary in some ways, their looks and behaviors are very different.Martha Foley asks, which is more competent?

From walking catfish, to snakeheads, to species of killifish, some fish actually survive outside of water for a surprising length of time.Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager discuss the old cliche "like a fish out of water," and about the strategies some fish use to do just fine out there in the air.

But you should still definitely avoid the stuff."Leaves of three, let it be." Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about one of the common and annoying menaces to enjoyment of the outdoors.They discuss whether it's really an ivy, why we call it "poison," and how humans and animals react differently to the plant.

Spring and early summer is the prime time of year for encounters with deer ticks, carriers of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. While still uncommon in the Adirondack upcountry, deer ticks are plentiful in the North Country lowlands. They're hard to see, and hard to remove safely. But not impossible. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about the life cycle of the deer tick, and practical ways to minimize exposure to Lyme disease.

Lampreys - are they fish or eel? Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about this jawless fish with a head full of teeth and a sucking mouth.

This pest of the northern spring can travel up to twenty miles on the wind. How to get away? Dress in yellow, some suggest, or tie a dragonfly to your hat. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager consult.

Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager talk about how we understand animal behavior and the natural world through the human perspective.

Climate change is in the news, from the recent update by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its detailed report on national and local impacts, to the news of the melting Antarctic ice sheet.Dr. Curt Stager, author of "Deep Future: the Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth," joins Martha Foley for a special Natural Selections call-in on climate change and other topics.