This weeks links:
- Humans disrupt ecosystems just by talking
- More unknown cell stuff: Are neurodegenerative diseases and aging due to a failure of cells removing waste?
- Another trend continues: Me posting to physics articles on a AP Bio blog. This one (by the same author as last week) is about what is the physical explanation of objects colors.
65 comments:
Today I read the article “Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age” and learned about the importance of autophagy in the cells. At the start of Autophaghy, an autophagosome engulfs misfolded proteins and damaged structures. It then fuses with a lysosome to breakdown the waster, allowing materials to be reused. Without it cells eventually die due to an excess buildup of waste. In an expirement done with mice, it was found that there were less autophaosomes produced along with defects in the produced autophagosomes in older neurons. It was also found that the trash cycle could be jumpstarted with the activation of WIPI2B. If the protein was removed, the process stalled. This is evidence that as cells age their ability to remove waste decreases. In humans, waste filled neurons could lead to ALS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodenerative diseases. The mice expirements may provide a cure to these diseases. If the activation of the WIPI2B protein was able to save old neurons in mice, could it do the same for humans?
After reading "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice" by The Atlantic, I now have a better understanding of another fascinating aspect of hunting and predators, sound and intimidation. I never realized how animals, specifically predators and carnivores, are so cautious when around humans or scary sounds. The psychology and the science makes total sense, but that fact that this isn't manipulated to a higher degree is very interesting. The fact that 80% of the mountains lions in Santa Cruz fled just because they heard humans is very eye-opening. Although this information may seem very surface level and simple, this may lead to bigger questions. For example, how does human industrialization affect the wildlife surrounding factories, roads, and cities? Pollution is affecting the earth's climate and wildlife by destroying habitats and degrading their bodily functions, but our impact may also be causing them to be constantly in fear. This fear also may be affecting their brain activity, which then affects the rest of their functions even more.
Ecosystems consist of a web of different community interactions amongst different organisms, which provide for overall productivity. This web is maintained through carefully balanced conditions, which ensure that each organism is able to play its proper role. The importance of ecological balance is demonstrated in the article, “Humans Are the Scariest Predator”. The slightest disturbances to conditions within an ecosystem can have significant effects on community structure and animal behavior. The article focuses on a study conducted by ecologist Justin Scuraci in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Researchers exposed animals within an area of the mountains to human voices reading poetry, over speakers. Predators within this area became frightened, and avoided the sounds. With a lack of predators, the prey populations grew in size. This disruption could have multiple harmful ecological effects, as the larger prey population would result in a depletion of the resources which sustain those organisms. This article demonstrates the fragility of the balance which sustains natural ecosystems and community structure, and how easily humans are capable of destroying this balance. Another interesting article focused on the different physical explanations for the color of objects. “The (Mostly) Quantum Physics of Making Colors” explains the physical mechanisms behind the perception of different colors. The processes behind perceiving color are complicated, and there are often multiple different forces playing a role in any given situation. Based on what I could comprehend, the perception of color seems to be based on the activity of electrons within atoms. When an atom is exposed to light, it absorbs the energy within the light waves as photons. These photons excite the electrons within the atom, causing them to move up to higher energy electron shells. As the electrons fall back down to lower energy electron shells, the atom releases the difference in energy between the excited level, and the lower-energy level. This energy is emitted in the form of electromagnetic radiation, and correlates to specific frequencies of light. These frequencies may be within the spectrum of visible light that we can perceive. These emission spectrums differ based on the atom and molecule involved. Another explanation for color involved the wave nature of electrons as well. When an atom absorbs light energy, it absorbs specific frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. These frequencies power the movement of electrons into a higher energy level. The remaining frequencies of light cannot be absorbed, and are therefore reflected. This reflected electromagnetic radiation is perceived by the viewer. For example, the chlorophyll pigment molecules within plants are able to absorb the frequencies of red, blue, and violet light, to excite electrons. The green and yellow frequencies of light may not be within the range of light that chlorophyll can absorb, and are therefore reflected. Therefore, humans perceive photosynthetic plants as green. It is interesting to see how complicated a process as general as perceiving color can be.
“The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” was an article about the impact that humans have on other animals. Because humans hunt animals, cause deforestation, and pollute the environment, many animals have come to fear humans. According to the article, “... even the gentlest of human speech can make wild animals—even top predators—unnerved and watchful, in ways that shake entire food webs. It’s the clearest demonstration yet that we are among the scariest of animals—a super-predator that terrifies even the carnivores that themselves incite terror.” Because the animals are scared of humans, they run away and are less likely to return to the place where they heard the human voices. This affects the food chain of these areas. Large predators run away leaving an over abundance of their prey.
The article that I chose to read this week was, “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice.” This article outlines the multiple experiments performed by the University of California in which speakers played human voices, all of which caused animals in the area to begin to act out of fear. This intrigued me as the fear caused the animals to behave differently, leading to a change in the environment in the process. For example, when dog noises were played near raccoons on an island, the raccoons quickly left the area. This led to less foraging in the island, which caused it to have more fish and other food along its coast, leading to the environment being reshaped by fear. Additionally, I feel that we do not think of ourselves as predators that would strike fear in other animals, including lions and other apex predators. However, these experiments were also tested on lions, who also started to act more cautiously when roaming their own territory. When these lions started to act cautiously, it allowed for its prey to have easier access to food, throwing the ecosystem off balance in the process. Further supporting this is the fact that when badgers were exposed to the sounds of wolves and bears, they were only mildly disturbed. However, when human sounds were played, the badgers seemed to be highly disturbed and behaved differently. Humans tend to consume far more food than other species do, which could even cause animals to have more fear than before.
Considering physics isn’t my strong suit, I decided to challenge myself this week and read the article on the quantum physics of color. I immediately stumbled when I came across the word quarks, which, according to Google are the building block particles of protons and neutrons. Fortunately, however, quarks have to do with a different type of color used in quantum chromodynamics that is only discussed briefly. The first physics process to determine color is the wave nature of electrons. Basically, depending on the atom’s energy state, each element emits a specific array of lines called spectral lines. The frequency of these lines decides the color of an object. It is interesting to read deeper into how color works, as, before reading this article, I thought that objects simply absorbed and reflected different frequencies of light just because.
The next section was more intriguing as it explained why things of all materials, such as a glass light bulb or an iron baseball bat, when heated up always become a glowing red. Apparently, it pertains to the particle nature of light, in particular, the fact that all light consists of photons carrying energy, however, I couldn’t grasp the entire concept. This is called the “black-body spectrum”. The third section explains how molecules get their color, as opposed to a singular kind of atom. This topic was easy for me to understand because it talked about covalent bonds which I learned in my honors bio class. I am glad that I read this article because it answered a question I’ve wondered about before: why do certain objects have a different color depending on the angle viewed from? In a nutshell, waves of light can cross or overlap, which may merge the colors or in certain cases, one color overpowers the other. The overlapping of rays depends on the angle the object is seen from. Reading this article gave me a taste of physics, which I will take in junior year.
The article I had the most interest in was “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice”. The title completely surprised me because I would have never thought that the voices of humans can have a drastic effect. In the article, I learned that hearing the voice of a human can scare away a predator like a mountain lion which would affect the rest of the ecosystem. Ecologist Jacob Suraci and his colleagues completed many experiments that proved this conclusion. The experiment in the Santa Cruz Mountains was interesting because they set up speakers around the area where the mountain lions, bobcats, and other animals inhabited. They played talking humans and also themselves reading poetry and nature readings. When they tested this in the Santa Cruz Mountains and tracked seven mountain lions, they discovered that the lions stayed away from the area, bobcats became nocturnal, and even opossums spent less time foraging. Therefore, a conversation between two people can affect the top predators which would affect the other living organisms in the area. This completely surprised me because many humans love to connect with nature like hiking, and they would never have known that they are completely changing an ecosystem. The studies show that large carnivores like mountain lions that many humans are afraid of are actually afraid of humans which is what causes the drastic changes. Even though humans are not physically destroying an ecosystem like cutting down trees or building factories, they still have the potential to harm it by just talking. It is difficult to prevent humans from talking in the wild because it is important for them to connect with nature. However, there are ways for them to limit their activities in the important habitats. This article changed my view because I never knew that only a conversation can have a major effect in the wildlife, and I would be more aware the next time I go for a hike.
"Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age” was an interesting article because it seems like scientists have been at roadblock with many neurodegenerative diseases for so long. No one has figured out the cause of Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s which has prevented people suffering from these diseases from getting the best treatment possible. It is crazy to think that there are basically an infinite amount of proteins that can be created, and one protein has the potential to cure diseases that affect so many people globally. The article highlighted how vital it is for cells to remain healthy and balanced. “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” was a very eye-opening article. I never really considered the impact of noise on the ecosystem until reading this article. It’s unsettling to think that something as simple as talking to a friend while walking through a park can disturb any animals lurking nearby. I already knew that humans were the most dangerous species on the planet, and this article showed me another way that humanity is slowly killing the planet.
I chose to read the article "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice." This article was very, very interesting for several reasons. First, it points out how much humans actually affect the world around us, including the other organisms that live in it. The way that they do so is incredible, and it's nothing to be proud about. What truly shocked me was the title itself; I never knew, or even thought that if we talked, we disturbed the environment. Turns out that we do significantly. As the article stated, there were experiments performed by various people, such as Justin Suraci and his friends. They read poetry to the wild predators, and many of them fled the scene. The animals in the area had become weary of their surroundings as they were alarmed of human presence. They soon discovered that even the "gentlest of human speech" can alarm many top predators of their specific environment. Predators instill fear in their prey even without killing them; "their [the predator's] tracks, smells, and sounds" put their prey in a state of unease. This is exactly what humans did to those top predators who should be ruling over their ecosystem. Moreover, this wasn't their only experiment. They decided to play clips of political commentators such as Rachel Maddow and Rush Limbaugh. What did it do? It made mountain lions flee more than 80 percent of the time. The experiment involved putting GPS trackers on the mountain lions, and they discovered that while human voices were playing, the movement of the predators had slowed down, became more cautious of their surroundings, and tried staying away from human contact as much as they could. And it isn't just large predators. As the article says, "bobcats had become more nocturnal, skunks had become less active, and opossums spent less time foraging." What's worth noting about these instances is that all this activity had changed just from the human voice. It is very clear that humans are a vast, intelligent species, and we are constantly affecting the ecosystems of others to our own benefit. If we can cause so much to happen with as little as our voice, try imagining what happens with all of our other actions, such as pollution, deforestation, or even moving. As Kaitlyn Gaynor said, "People often fear large carnivores like mountain lions, but in reality, they are far more scared of us. And as this study suggests, this fear can reshape ecosystems."
I found the article, “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice”, very fascinating. Typically, it seems like most people are frightened by big animals such as bobcats and mountain lions, but a study conducted by ecologist Justin Suraci proved that the opposite is true too. Suraci and others had planted speakers that played recordings of people reciting poetry in isolated areas. They discovered that in the presence of human speech, wild animals, including top predators, became paranoid and restless. This change in behavior is so severe that entire food webs have been disturbed. This study has shown that even to the most dangerous predators, humans are the most terrifying animals. The tracks, smells, and sounds of predators can cause nervousness in prey, creating a “landscape of fear”, affecting how the prey move about the area. Another experiment executed by Suraci showed how raccoons in the Gulf Islands spent less time searching for resources on the beach when they heard recordings of dogs. The lack of presence of the raccoons led to rock pools filling up with more fish, worms, and crabs, changing the whole beach. In yet another experiment carried out by Suraci, badgers were played the sounds of wolves, bears, and other various carnivores. The badgers ignored the “wolves” but were a little paranoid when it came to the growl of the “bears”. However, the badgers were very concerned when it came to human speech. Mountain lions were also played a variety of sounds including frog croaks, which they ignored, and human speech which resulted in lions running away more than 80% of the time. Even when gentler voices were being played on speakers, predators avoided the sounds, were far more cautious, and even changed some of their behaviors so that some (bobcats) became more nocturnal and others (skunks and opossums) became less active and spent less time getting resources. On the other hand, due to the lack of predator activity, rodents took advantage of the sounds and expanded their foraging areas. It’s concluded that even if humans didn’t cut down trees and industrialize, we as a species still impact wildlife by an insane amount just with our presence. Even though we’re plenty scared of predators in the wild, the grave reality is that they’re completely petrified of us.
The first article I chose to read titled, "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice," was quite intriguing just from the title itself. The article focused on the dangerous consequences of the human voice on animals. A group of colleagues from the University of California set up a set of speakers, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, to study the animals' reactions to human sound. This eventually showed that even the most gentle human speech made the wild animals feel uneasy and restless. In fact, the article states that "... we are among the scariest of animals-- a super predator that terrifies even the carnivores that themselves incite terror." This simple experiment led to further research by the team at the University of California. For example, they showed that raccoons living in the Gulf Islands avoided searching for food on the beach when they played recordings of dogs. This in turn caused a major impact in the food chain. As the article puts it, "Fear reshaped the entire beach." For further information, the team wanted to test the theory of the "disturbing human voice" with larger animals; specifically, mountain lions. They played recordings of frogs and human voices. The frogs didn't cause any reaction. However, the human sound caused them to flee and escape 80% of the time. In all, the study shows that human speech causes a snowball effect. The mountain lions move more faster, while an oppossum changes its eating habits, etc.
It can be said that these carnivores or large predators are more intimidated by humans than we are of them. As ultimately concluded by the article, human-induced behavioral changes can be harmful to animals, ecosystems, and food chains. However, at the same time, it is also possible that some animals can coexist with humans as the planet gros more crowded by the day.
This week, I read the article “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice”. Just from reading the title, I was immediately interested. I always commonly thought that some animals fear human voices, but I didn’t realize that out voices can have such a great effect to the point of disturbing an entire ecosystem. Ed Young explains the phrase “landscape of fear” saying that even when a predator isn’t looking to hunt, their prey still fear any remnants of them like their scent or their tracks. This means that even when a person is not deliberately trying to harm an animal, the animal can take their presence alone as a threat. This was shocking because, even though I typically see this kind of behavior in a squirrel, for example, I didn’t think a mountain lion would react the same way. Justin Suraci’s human voice experiment in the Santa Cruz Mountains proved that when hearing calm, human voices in a specific area, the mountain lions knew there was human presence, so whenever they heard the voices, they moved quickly and carefully away from that area. Even bobcats and skunks appeared less frequently in the gridded speaker area. This majorly effected the ecosystem in these mountains because with a lot of the predators hunting and moving a lot less than usual, their prey were allowed to roam more freely and less fearful. It’s crazy to think that even when a human speaks softly, it can have a major shift in how things typically are in ecosystems. Suraci’s experiments proved that the loud voice of the human population can either be harmful or helpful to an ecosystem filled with predators and prey. I hope that, in the future, humans won’t be the cause of the extinction of various species.
I found the article, “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” very intriguing. I was very interested and curious to read this article because of the attention- grabbing title. Previously, I was not aware that the sound of a human voice or a human’s movement can affect animals in the ecosystem. The gentlest of human speech can make wild animals and skilled predators cautious, affecting the entire food web. Predators instill a state of simmering unease in their prey called a “landscape of fear”, which is a mental map of risk that affects how hunted animals move over physical terrain. Furthermore, ecologist Justin Surachi and his team conducted mutiple experiments to prove that animals reacted to human speech. The first experiment involved researchers playing various sounds of carnivores, recordings of BBC documentaries, and a reading of “The Wind in the Willows.” What I found very suprising is that the badgers ignored the sounds of the wolves entirely and was mildly concerned by the sounds of the bears. However, they were greatly disturbed by the sound of human voices. Similarly, Surachi and his team carried out another study relating to the behavior of animals upon hearing human speech. They first placed speakers in places where mountain lions regularly ate and hunted. When the lions were walking closer to the speakers, the researchers played the voices of humans and croaking frogs. Like in the previous experiment, the lions ignored the croaking frogs, but the sound of human voices made them flee more than 80 percent of the time. Finally, a third experiment was conducted on a bigger scale to further their claim. The team placed 25 speakers around a square- kilometer grid, and the speakers were programmed to play 40 percent of the time. Surachi and his team found that seven mountain lions, fitted with GPSs, kept their distance from the grid and moved more carefully when humans were heard. Additionally, the researchers saw that mild carnivores were affected too: Bobcats became more nocturnal, skunks became less active, and opossums spent less time forging for food. All of these results illustrate the fact that predators are heavily influenced by humans, and their fears can reshape ecosystems entirely. Surachi proved that a mere presence of people can impact wildlife, change the contours of “landscape of fear”, and affect eating habits of predators and prey. Overall, I learned about the behaviors of animals in relation to people. Our species potentially terrifies wildlife because of the actions that we perform such as industrial activity, logging, destroying habitats, and vehicle traffic. Nevertheless, Surachi explains that it is important to be connected with nature. Experiments like the one Surachi performed emphasize the reverberations of human super-predator across the entire community on a larger scale. The next step for ecologists to research is if these human effects are detrimental for animals and what can be done to help humans coexist with mammals and other wildlife.
This week I read “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice.” Based on the title, I thought the article would discuss how human voices can scare off animals during confrontation. However after reading, I was amazed by the subtle power of the human voice. Humans can ruin habitats through physical and noticeable means like pollution and deforestation. I didn’t know that other animals are naturally afraid and stressed because of human voices. Something as simple as a conversation in the woods could have a ripple effect throughout an ecosystem. Something that interested me was the idea of the “landscape of fear.” If we’ve been down a dark back road before, we know not to go down it again. Just like us, wild animals know to avoid places where possible predators are. If animals continue to stray away from places with traces of human beings, it’ll be detrimental to their livelihood. I wonder how scientists will tackle this issue because animals will continue to migrate away from their food sources and homes.
This week I chose to read the article “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” by Ed Yong. The title of the article itself fascinated me and made me want to learn more. This article is about how the sound of a human voice can instill fear in large predators of an ecosystem, causing a ripple effect of changes in that given ecosystem. An ecosystem is a biological community consisting of biotic and abiotic components that interact with each other. This article highlights how an ecosystem can be completely altered by just one small disturbance. With human disturbances to nature such as hunting, deforestation, and pollution, animals—even the largest of the predators—have come to fear humans. To test this further, ecologist Justin Suraci and a group of colleagues traveled to the Santa Cruz Mountains, where they tested the effects of the human voice on animals in the mountains. They read a poem aloud, and animals in the area either stopped eating, fled in fear, or became jittery. Suraci decided to take this experiment to the next step by putting up speakers in nature with different human noises and volumes to see if predators would get scared away. It was concluded from this experiment that humans have instilled a “landscape of fear” in animals, and can scare away even the deadliest of predators, which in turn can shake a whole food web. The group of colleagues then wanted to test a larger predator, so they put up speakers in the part of the mountains where mountain lions feasted. The speakers consisted of the sounds of frogs and humans. When the frog sounds were played, the mountain lions were not affected, but when the human voice played, the mountain lions fled. The team used camera traps and GPS collars to further track the activity of the animals. They found that skunks became almost inactive, opossums spent less time foraging for food, and bobcats came out mostly at night. In all, this team has successfully concluded that the human voice can disturb large predators and medium-sized carnivores, leading to the changes in the food web and ecosystem.
The “Humans Are the Scariest Predator” article was an interesting read. Human voices are not something that seems disturbing— to humans— and yet their presence can change entire ecosystems. The article was an eye-opener to me, showing yet another way in which humans have an unpleasant effect on nature. Cutting down trees, filling the ocean with plastic, and hunting these animals already messes up the harmony and peace that is every ecosystem, but something as simple as our voices can shake things up drastically.
“Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age” was a very thought provoking article because it explains to the reader the difficulties for scientists to figure out the cause of neurodegenerative diseases. This intern cause the people suffering for ALS,Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s diseases inadequate care, due to our inability to find a solution. At the start of autophagy, an autophagosome engulfs the damaged structure and essentially throw into as the article called it a “biological trash bag.” They then fuse with a lysosome that break down the garbage. This keeps the neurons healthy, so that they can refuse. Waste filled neurons are believed to cause these diseases since they never replicate and are as old as the body. Leading to the development of risk factors that cause the neurodegenerative diseases.
After reading “The Disturbing sound of a Human Voice”, it has come to the realization that the human to nature contact is nothing but harmful to animals in their natural habitat. When a person goes into the woods, hiking, observing the wildlife, taking pictures, or even just enjoying the serenity, they are not alone. There are thousands of species of animals that live hidden in nature, from birds, to wild dogs, to tiny rodents that crawl beneath the soil. Every animal, more specifically humans hold a specific scent, make specific sounds, and create changes in a natural environment that were once untouched. The simple sound of a human voice can travel miles, traveling into the ears of many animals. These animals become aware of the unfamiliar sound, becoming jittery, and nervous. These animals may run, flee, and stop eating in order to remain hidden and protected. This creates a disturbance in the food web. Even the most gentle, calm voice creates this disturbed environment, known as the “landscape of fear”. This term has been supported by multiple trials and experiments on how animals react to human presence in natural environments. These studies have also proven that humans are classified as “super-predators”. We are the most feared species on the planet, holding the ability to prey on almost every species known to man, with the help of modern technology. The solution to this is not to isolate humans from nature entirely, but to limit the intrusion of humans and recreational activity in areas highly populated with animals.
I found the article "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice" interesting because I wasn't aware of how big of an impact humans could negatively make on animals. The University of California conducted several experiments to see how animals around would react when they heard the recordings of the human voices. They discovered that even the most gentle voice can scare animals which messes with the food chains. I found this intriguing because like many people, I always thought it was just us humans who were afraid of these animals, but in reality they're more afraid and see us as threats who are changing their environment. Not only do humans disturb animals by just presence, but humans also hurt their habitats through things like deforestation. This article made me think about what we can do to help protect these animals and their environment.
The article I read this week was “Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age.” This article clearly explained the importance of autophagy, a process in which certain proteins and dysfunctional structures are controlled. The failure of any part of the process can cause waste to build up in cells and kill them. As the University of Pennsylvania conducted studies, it was discovered that aging affects autophagy in cells and their ability to remove waste diminishes. The results of this study lead scientists to believe that the weakness of autophagy in the neurons of older bodies could be a risk for diseases like ALS, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. Scientists like Erica Holzbaur and Andrea Stavoe are conducting experiments to understand the importance of autophagy and how a decline in this process can lead to diseases. Using live-cell imaging of neurons from mice, scientists were able to examine the rates at which autophagy occurred in mice and found that aging decreases the number of autophagosomes formed in a mouse’s body. However the WIPI2B protein in aged mice allows for the process of forming autophagosomes in aged neutrons to be restored. This in turn allows for autophagy to successfully occur in mice. As new studies are conducted, scientists are trying to conduct experiments to try and learn more about the affect of autophagy in humans as they age.
Recent scientific research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has found the correlation between neurodegenerative diseases and the process of autophagy. Autophagy, a normal cellular process in which clusters of proteins and irregular structures are removed from a cell, protects cells from building up waste; however if this process fails, and waste accumulates in the cell, cell death is certain. At the onset of autophagy, proteins called autophagosomes, engulf dysfunctional proteins and structures which then sent to lysosomes, other proteins containing enzymes. Consequently, the lysosomes utilize their enzymes to breakdown the dysfunctional protein and other structures ultimately removing it from the cell. Although cells in other parts of the human body replicate often, neuron cells do not replicate ultimately leading to complications when autophagy fails due to the neuron cell death. This neuron cell death may predispose individuals to various diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Furthermore, experiments on mice have found that the process of autophagy has decreased and the presence of defected autophagosomes occurs in aging mice neuron cells. This may lead scientists to conduct human research regarding the relationship of age and the process of autophagy due to a large number of individuals with neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, scientists discovered the activation of the protein WIPI2B in aging mice returns the normal synthesis of autophagosomes which are crucial in the process of autophagy. This discovery may pave the way to a new treatment to humans with neurodegenerative diseases by activating WIPI2B.
From all three articles I was most interested in “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice.” I was extremely fascinated by how human’s voices can just frighten animals. Just like when some people get panicked by hearing an animal’s voice, animals get panicked by hearing a human’s voice. Animals can get depressed, and can stop eating. This can lead to extinct animals. As it states in the article, “Some of the animals became jittery. Others stopped eating. A few fled in fear.” The University of California at Santa Cruz set up speakers of humans speaking to see how animals react to the voices of humans. Surachi, “who’s based at the University of California at Santa Cruz” and his colleagues set up speakers of humans talking that were played throughout the forest. They found that even the animals at the top of the hierarchy can make them more aware of their surroundings, and more suspicious when they heard humans. As it says in the passage, “even the gentlest of human speech can make wild animals—even top predators—unnerved and watchful, in ways that shake entire food webs.” Surachi and his friends even decided to track down seven mountain lines with GPS collars to see how they moved in the forest while listening to the speakers. In the article it said, “...moved more cautiously, when humans could be heard.” With all the humans spanking, the forest filled with fear. A fear that could stop the lives of many animals. People don’t think that animals can be scared of us, but as proven by Surachi and his colleagues, the smallest things done by humans can make a big stop to the lives of many animals.
After reading the article about how quantum physics intertwines with how we see color, I found it interesting how much physics actually plays a part in the process. I understood that when electrons in an atom go from a high state to a low state of energy, they let out photons of light with a frequency that depends on the difference of the energy from the state in the beginning to the end. These differences between energy levels in electrons produce light in the form of spectral lines. Each element has its own unique spectral line. I also found out that the reason that hot objects glow is because of their temperatures, which helps produce "a black body spectrum" to emit an equal glow for all objects that are at the same temperature, which is given due to the photons in a ray of light, each with different energy levels. I found the rest of the article intriguing, but I thought that the most interesting part was how a determinant of seeing color is how the observer sees it. The article states that many processes regarding the wave nature of electrons help determine the spectrum of light that our eyes see from a certain object. Apparently, at the end of the day, the color we see depends on how the brain interprets it. This process is called quantum component, which is actually when our eyes see light with molecular detectors and take in different ranges of wavelengths, which I found interesting. Though I didn't fully have a grasp on everything that was written in the article, I now have a greater insight on the topic.
The article that fascinated me was the “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” by Ed Yong. The article focused on how even the slightest of human voices can affect the behavior of various animals, which in turn will hurt the ecosystems that the animals affected reside in. For example, the article states that “...even the gentlest of human speech can make wild animals—even top predators—unnerved and watchful, in ways that shake entire food webs. It’s the clearest demonstration yet that we are among the scariest of animals—a super-predator that terrifies even the carnivores that themselves incite terror.” Before reading this article I knew that the noises that humans activities produce such as driving or construction can affect the behavior of animals in a way that can drive them out of their habitat, but had no idea that just the smallest peep of a human voice can have a similar effect. In addition, I found it interesting that the article describes humans as a “super-predator” without the majority even knowing this and many people instead, being scared of the predators themselves like mountain lions. However, the article says that when human voices were played, the mountain lions fled “...more than 80 percent of the time” meaning that mountain lions are more scared of humans. Reflecting on this article, I am concerned on how we can solve this issue as we live in a time where humans are increasingly expanding their presence through the introduction of new homes, or shopping center. An increase in these activities means more human voices, a decrease in predator activities, and an increase in prey activities like mice or rats who can rummage through an ecosystem and potentially ruin it as a pest. Overall, I believe that this article should be shared more than other articles on the impact of human beings to bring more awareness to this issue and make many realize how truly damaging our activities can be.
I read the “Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice Article,” and it was interesting to see the mere effect humans have on nature and wildlife, an effect we may not realize. Wild animals remain alert at the sound of a human voice because they see us as predators. Not just because of human hunters, but also because of everyday human activities that frighten animals like traffic or cars. It is important for humans to realize that they both frighten animals and change their environment. With increasing concerns about global warming and destruction of ecosystems, humans must realize we are not only affecting ourselves but also the earth we live on and wild animals.
The article The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice brought my attention to the main problems to the impact that humans have on the animal kingdom. I found the fact that a human talking can alter the chain in such a massive way surprising. The fact that humans can cause such a big impact by speaking brings light on the other effects that we can cause by just existing. This article is a reminder for people to conserve resources and not pollute the earth. If a sound that a human makes can effect the ecosystem by scaring a predator and ruining the whole food web, it makes me imagine how much humans are really altering the balance by advancing each day. It shocked me to understand that one human has such an impact on the world. This article brings out the importance in stopping pollution. If speaking could mess up the balance this much, it mad me imagine what a littered plastic bottle could do, or going out for a drive in your car. Reading this article made me understand the importance of being mindful of the ecosystems around us.
I read the study "Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age". This article was actually very interesting to me. The concept of autophagy is basically the process of cells removing waste from your body, and Penn Medicine conducted a study proving that this process deteriorates over time. Considering this phenomenon, by looking at mice over their lifetime, scientists concluded that the deteriorating process of autophagy increases elder people's risk for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's. When autophagy fails, it's because of failing autophagosome formations, and thus this results in accumulation of trash at neuronal synapses. However, these researches have therefore concluded that by turning on the protein WIPI2B in aged mice, autophagosome formation is restored, bringing the autophagy process back online and preventing such mishaps. This solution is important to remember as it can be effective in humans soon and slow down the increasing risk of neurological diseases.
This week I read the article "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice" which explains the effects that noise made by humans can have on entire ecosystems. I learned many new things from this article written by Ed Yong that surprised me. To begin with, I did not know that just the presence of humans can change how animals behave and interact with their environment. The article explained that the tracks, smells, and sounds of predators creates a "landscape of fear" in the minds of hunted animals. Ecologist Justin Suraci from the University of California at Santa Cruz conducted multiple experiments that show how animals react to recordings of human voices and sounds made by predators which creates this "landscape of fear". For example, through one of his experiments he showed how recordings of dogs frightened away raccoons on beaches in the Gulf Islands. The article's explanation of how the absence of raccoons in this areas affected the ecosystem truly surprised me. This introduced me to the idea of how just sounds of predators can cause animals to stay away from an area entirely. This can lead to other organisms in the environment having no natural predators and being able to expand exponentially. Another one of Suraci's experiments involved playing human voices using speakers in areas where mountain lions regularly roamed. Although mountain lions are large carnivores, they were frightened by humans voices and fled the area more than 80 percent of the time. This clearly highlights the large impact of humans on wild animals. These effects are described in the quote "Bobcats became more nocturnal, skunks became less active, and opossums spent less time foraging" which the author used to explain the results of the experiment. The impact that humans have on wildlife as described in the article makes me wonder how much we have changed ecosystems over time just through our presence. The results of Suraci's experiments made me realize that wildlife areas need to be protected from human presence in order to preserve them. This will ensure that humans do not cause large predators to go extinct or small animal populations to expand out of control. I hope that this can also become an opportunity for large mammals to learn how to coexist with humans as stated at the end of the article. The experiments conducted by Justin Suraci were crucial in my understanding of this topic, and I hope that in the future we can find a solution to this issue that will be beneficial to both wildlife and humans.
Today, I read the article "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice" by The Atlantic, which I had found very fascinating. I was very intrigued by this article as I was not aware of the fact that human voices can trigger fear in animals. Even, change entire ecosystems. This article states that the animals are either hugely impacted or in the advantage. As it states, " “Some of the animals became jittery. Others stopped eating. A few fled in fear.” As you can see, many animals were affected in several different ways. Based on Suraci's observations many of the animals had fled 80% of the time. It was also clearly stated, that animals were not even disturbed by some of their predators but by humans. It states, " The badgers ignored the sounds of wolves entirely and were mildly concerned by the growls of wolves and bears. But they were profoundly disturbed by human speech..." On the other hand, there are other animals who are impacted in a good way. This part had me captivated as this was a shock to me. It states, " The only animals that benefited were mice and rats, which took advantage of the predators’ absence to expand their range and forage more intensely." It is like the human speakers set by the people had played a role as a protector for the mice and rats.
7/22/19 AP Bio
I personally am very interested in the natural phenomenons that occur in each cell, and that’s why the article, “Taking Out the Protein Garbage Becomes More Difficult as Neurons Age” caught my attention the most. One of the processes that takes place in these microscopic sacs is autophagy, a mechanism that allows the cell to destroy useless proteins to avoid any build-up. Structures in the cell called autophagosomes will envelope the damaged protein and then join with an organelle called a lysosome, which will then break the waste down. This ensures that the cell doesn’t fill up with unnecessary material, which will kill the cell. However, when cells grow older, the amount of autophagosomes decreases, and the process isn’t as effective as it was before. This isn’t a problem for cells that reproduce because there are new cells of their type being created all the time through cellular reproduction. The problem here though is that not every cell (like neurons, for example) is able to reproduce. Collectively, the autophagosomes in aged neurons will reduce in its capability to “take out the trash”, and what results are dulled neurons. Scientists think that this could be a possible cause for neurodegenerative diseases (definition-conditions which primarily affect the neurons in the human brain). In an experiment with mice, scientists found that turning on a protein called W1P12B replenished the amount of healthy autophagosomes in the old neurons. To reaffirm that that protein was responsible for autophagosome production, scientists removed it from younger neurons and found that autophagosomes were no longer being created. This information could be useful to help us find a cure to neurodegenerative diseases (as there are none as of now) if the gene for this protein is found in humans.
Tanush Saini- This week I read, “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice”. This article truly amazed me as I could never have thought that human sounds had so much impact on the environment. This article focuses on how sounds from humans effects ecosystems and population of animals as a whole. The article also described how the predator-prey relationships between species effects animals psychological actions. For example it was interesting to read about how certain animals reacted to the sounds which were similar to the sounds from their predators. For example the article described how when Raccoons heard sounds of dogs on the beach they stayed away from the beach, and as a result water pools that formed in rocks were filled with fish. This scenario described how the sounds of a predator can effect a whole ecosystem. This also applied when researchers played human noises to mountain lions in their natural habitat. Similar to the raccoon scenario, the mountain lions refrained from the areas where human sounds were played and behaved very differently. These results were very interesting as I had not known that human sounds had such an effect on the environment. This interesting reaction to human sounds can be justified as, animals have a sense of fear when they hear humans and behave according to this fear. In the first and second scenario the animals reacted to the sounds of predators which awoke this instinct of fear among them. After reading this article my perspective for how our sounds affect the environment has changed. It was really interesting how the smallest things such as human sounds even effect the environment, and after reading this I will be mindful when I’m around nature that my voice effects them.
After reading the three articles, I decided that the article “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” was the most interesting for me. In this article, the author explains how various experiments have been done in order to study how dangerous a human voice is, and what it can do to the environment. They played human voices among some of the scariest predators, and those predators became more cautious and careful about coming near the sound. This then led to them not dominating the ecosystem anymore, and when that happens, the whole food web is scrambled because the mountains lions are afraid, allowing the prey to roam more freely. The result was the primary consumers were able to grow and become more active while higher level consumers became more quiet and stayed in the background. This article showed me that anything we do has an unbelievable impact on nature, even though we rarely realize it. For example, when we go hiking, when we talk to each other, we are interfering we nature and causing problems in that area. To conclude, this article showed how fear basically controls the lives of everyone, and how the smallest things could have the biggest impacts in life.
The "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice" article was very interesting. When the article discussed how animals react to other predatory animals it surprised me how animals reacted the same and even worse to humans. The "landscape of fear" that animals leave behind like smells and sound had the ability to change an ecosystem. Just hearing a recording of dogs made raccoons in the Gulf Islands change their behaviors. When mountain lions heard the human recordings, fear made them change how they behaved and even affected the other predators in the area which in change affected the entire ecosystem. When most people see a predatory animal they feel fear but to find out that we have the same effect on them, if not a worse one is shocking. Even calm poetry put the animals on edge. I think that this is important to know so that we can better understand how we effect the environment and the animals in it. Taking care of the environment now is becoming a very large issue and while taking efforts to be conscious of the products we use to help save the environment is beneficial, understanding how we effect the environment is important as well. If something as simple to us as talking can lead to a change in an ecosystem, the environment can benefit from us becoming more educated on out effect.
When most people think about the effects of humans on ecosystems, they often fail to consider the surprising effects of a human’s voice. Justin Suraci and his colleagues from the University of California placed speakers that would play human speech in areas that were not frequently visited by humans. The experiment showed that wild animals, from primary consumers to apex predators will become spooked once they hear human voices. It reveals that we humans are the super-predator that terrifies even the highest of predators.
Our tracks, smell, and sounds create a “landscape of fear” that affects how hunted animals move over physical terrain. An example of this is how raccoons in the Gulf Islands spent less time searching for food when they heard dogs. This, in turn, changed the ecosystem. The rock pools had an increase of fish, worms, and crabs since the raccoons foraged less frequently. Other predators can create a similar “landscape of fear” such as spiders, hawks, sharks, and wolves. Although these predators can create a similar effect, we humans create more fear in prey than the other predators.
When badgers were exposed to different sounds of carnivores, the badgers ignored the sounds of wolves and were mildly concerned at most when they heard the growls of wolves and bears. However, when the sounds of human speech, including gentle ones, they were deeply disturbed unlike the other sounds of the other predators.
To test if similar effects would occur to a larger carnivore, their team played speakers in the Santa Cruz Mountains when mountain lions approached. When frogs were played, the mountain lions were unfazed. However, when the mountain lions heard human voices, they fled over 80 percent of the time.
Also, the team set up 25 speakers in a square kilometer grid and played them 40 percent of the time. By tracking tagged mountain lions, the experiment showed that the lions stayed away from the grids and moved carefully when the voices could be heard. The lions were not the only carnivore affected, however. Medium-sized carnivores such as bobcats, opossums, and skunks were adversely affected by human voices. On the other hand, rodents such as mice and rats prospered by taking advantage of the absence of predators.
People may be fearful of large predators when in the wild, but in reality, it is the predators that are fearful of us. Our presence alone changes ecosystems through fear.
This problem brings up another question. What can we do to limit the effects of our presence in the environment? I think that although national and state parks provide a way for people to connect to the environment, it also creates a large human presence in one ecosystem. By limiting the number of people inside the parks at certain times, it decreases the presence of humans while providing a way for people to enjoy nature. We can create natural sound barriers around highly populated areas as a way to encourage wildlife to return to areas that have been previously destroyed. However, this is just a theory and most likely has many flaws that I have not thought of yet, but that is just a quick idea that I thought of to reduce our the effects of our presence in the wild.
I read the first article, “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice.” It is interesting just to be able to fathom that just the sound of the human voice can scare huge predators, including mountain lions, leading to changes in complete ecosystems. This is one important thing that Justin Suraci, an ecologist, was able to prove. Predators are able to give off tracks, smells, and sounds that give a sense of fear to their prey. Suraci was able to discover that we can bye very terrifying too wildlife because of how loud and big we are. This does not mean that people have to go away from all wild areas. Instead, they have to “restrict activities during the day, or limit the numbers or timing of human access” (Suraci). Such experiments are able to evoke comprehension in why humans are extremely significant, and they especially cause me to be even more fascinated in the vast world of biology, at least more than I already am.
The articles I choose to read this week are “Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age” and “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice.” The first article was about a study performed at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, which revealed that the effects of aging and neurodegenerative diseases could be the result of the natural degeneration of a process called autophagy. Apparently this process allows for cellular waste to be transported to lysosomes so that it can be decomposed, and as this process slows it leaves more waste inside the cell until it builds up to a point where the cell dies. I find it interesting that the waste management of the cell could have such a great effect on the cell’s function and life of the cell, and I realize now that if there could be medicines released to stop the degeneration of autophagy, it could lead to a better treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and also aging.
The other article I read, “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice”, is about how human voices can change entire ecosystems due to the activity of predators in response to them. For example, in the article ecologist Justin Suraci played human voices on speakers and ended up scaring away mountain lions, bobcats, skunks, and opossums (but ended up helping the mice and rats who increased their feeding area and amount of food eaten since their predators were absent for a larger period of time). Since humans are essentially everywhere now, some even reaching the remote locations, this shows the extreme consequences of disturbing nature, and how there should be a limit to how many people can enter a nature preserve during the day so that these important predators aren’t affected as much as shown in the experiment.
This week I chose to comment on “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice.” I was immediately puzzled when I came across the title of this piece. However, after reading I became aware of the unforeseen impact humans create on animal ecosystems. It’s funny to see that humans often fear wildlife when in fact the animals fear us more. From prior knowledge of I knew that ecosystems are the abiotic and biotic components existing in a geographical area. These complex interactions can fall into trouble in the event that they are disrupted. Unfortunately, humans are primarily at fault for the deaths of hundreds of species. People are conforming the branches of the Tree of Life through the burning of fossil fuels, poaching, deforestation, human activities, and now even by their voice. Species are slowly disappearing after falling victim to endangerment. Extinction looms over many species part of the animal kingdom and this is not a good sign for the future. Ecologist Justin Suraci and his colleagues discovered that some animals fled upon hearing a human voice. In one experiment they set up speakers to play recordings of carnivores as well as human speech to a group of badgers in an English forest. Surprisingly, hearing the human voice scared them more than the growls of their direct predators. In order to observe if larger carnivores would respond the same way the scientists played recordings of humans talking and croaking frogs to mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Similarly, the cats kept their distance from the human sounds. “This creates what ecologists call a “landscape of fear”—a mental map of risk that affects how hunted animals move over physical terrain.” In turn, the predators of the mountain lions face trouble to find food and the population size of their prey will increase because of the absence of their natural predators. This demonstrates a snowball effect, overall ruining the balance of ecosystems. Therefore, ecosystems must be properly sustained to ensure stability between interacting communities. The article depicted how simply just the human voice can create detrimental effects on wildlife and forever alter food webs.
In the article, "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice," the author explains the impact of human voice on surrounding ecosystem's. I found it to be peculiar that human voice perturbes, terrifies, and ultimately alters the behavior of several species of animal. This allows me to question how superior the human species is to animals, considering that we are classified as "super-predators." In addition, it would be interesting to see a study that determines how much humans have changed the ecosystem's around them, in causation of industrialization and urbanization, and how the human voice played a part in changing it. To further improve this study, I would have taken three sample groups, one being an unaffected control group, one with normal human communication, and another with aggressive human communication, to see how drastically different the animals react.
The article, “Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age,” explained the process of autophagy which cells use to remove unnecessary or dysfunctional components. It allows the degradation and recycling of components in the cell and therefore if this process slows down or eventually stops, waste builds up inside cells, eventually killing them. Defects in this process can lead to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), and Parkinson’s diseases. Alzheimer’s, for example, is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions. The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine conducted a study which suggested that the three is a decrease in the rate of autophagy in mammalian neurons during aging. There were noticeable morphological defects observed in autophagosomes in neurons from aged mice. The study on mice revealed that the protein WIPI2B directly relates to the autophagy process. By turning this protein on in aged mice, the autophagosome formation in aged neurons is restored and similarly by taking this protein out, autophagosome formation is stalled. By finding a way to manipulate this protein, scientists can ensure the autophagy process is not defected. This study could eventually lead to lower chances of such neurodegenerative diseases and possibly better treatments to cure them.
The article that most intrigued me was “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice.” Ed Yong explains how even simple sounds of the human voice can be terrifying for numerous animals, including predators, casting a large impact on the food chain. Ecologist Justin Suraci along with a group of his friends were on the Santa Cruz Mountains along with numerous other animals such as mountain lions and bobcats. While reading poetry, Suraci noticed that numerous animals were uneasy, with some fleeing while some stopped what they were doing. To further understand what was occurring, Suraci and some of his colleagues set up a series of speakers that would play sounds of the human voices, in locations where humans do not visit. They noticed that even the most soothing voices can startle prey and predators alike, creating a fearful atmosphere. Top predators are seen as more careful causing them to restrict the way the hunt, in turn affecting the food web. This is called a “landscape of fear” in which animals are afraid of scarier predators often called super-predators. These super-predators leave behind trails such as smells or tracks that forces animals to consider potential risks. The article explains how numerous animals, such as badgers in an English forest, were only mildly concerned with the sounds of bears and wolves while when they heard the sounds of humans they were more fearful. Similar experiments were preformed with larger animals, and even the carnivorous animals avoided locations where the sounds were being played. This article highlights how terrifying humans are to all animal life. What humans may believe is not affecting animal population can have a larger impact than humans intend. By simply talking, humans can petrify animals, and affect numerous food chains. As a large species with numerous advancements such as technology, humans must be careful of how they interact with animals.
Wild animals and humans have lived amongst one another’s presence for centuries, yet mutualism still has not been reached. The article, “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” by Ed Yong, discusses the detrimental effects of the integration of both species in the same environment. Some of the effects include the destruction of food chains and the changing of entire ecosystems. Humans and wild animals share a mutual fear of one another. Humans fear the strength and unpredictable vicious behavior of wild animals while the animals fear the presence of humans in their habitat. Humans kill large numbers of animals for meat and clothing in addition to cutting down trees and taking resources from their living space. Even the sound of human voices makes wild animals on edge causing them to change their habitual actions. The ecologist, Justin Suraci, conducted a study about the reaction of the mountain lions and bobcats that reside in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He and his friends recorded themselves reading poetry and placed speakers around the area that projected their voices. Even though their voices were calm and quiet, an unusual change in behavior was reported. “Some of the animals became jittery. Others stopped eating. A few fled in fear” (Yong). Although these animals seem powerful and fearless, they actually view humans as predators. Any sounds of talking can cause them to stop eating or abandon their habitats. This in turn causes the actions of the animals and the balance of the food chain to be thrown off. Human beings continue to try to live amongst these wild animals, yet these animals are actually suffering due to the presence of people in their environments. Humans do not realize the severity of the impact that they have on wild species. Many people know that deforestation and global warming cause serious issues to animals, yet not many know that their voices alone can do damage to entire ecosystems. Awareness on the effect of human interference should be spread, and the conservation of wild animals should be made a priority.
The article that I found most intriguing was the “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice.” The impact of human life on the physical environment is potent on a worldwide scale. The article discusses one of the most important biological evolutions, natural selection. Humans are the most dominant species in the animal kingdom; with increased intelligence and awareness we are capable of influencing the food chain on a worldwide scale. For example, the article discussed the impact of human speech on the environment around them. The experiment first started when a man named Justin Suraci and some of his colleagues went hiking and came across a set of speakers. When him and his colleagues used the speakers to play speeches, they found that the animals in the surrounding area became more “unnerved and watchful.” This phenomenon interested me very much because when this event occurred, even the most superior predators in the area were frightened. Also, a similar experiment was conducted with raccoons in the gulf islands. When the sound of a dog was played, nearby raccoons would get scared and flee the radius of the beach. All in all, the most compelling point that I believe was presented was the impact between how animal and human speech altered not just the physical landscape but the food web. For example, when scientists put the sound of humans reading poetry near the inhabitance of bobcats, compared to the sound of a frog croaking, there was a significant alteration in the presence of bobcats and their hunting grounds, more and more bobcats got cautious of their hunting and many even fled 80% of the time, whereas when the sound of a frog was played it didn’t faze many or even all the bobcats. We as pure beings have disturbed the natural order of our ecosystem so significantly, that simply even the presence a human in any natural habitat, will alter how animals In that area hunt, communicate, and most importantly live.
I read the article "The Disturbing sound of a Human Voice" by Ed Young, this article discusses the effect that human speech has on an ecosystem. it talks about how al organisms in an ecosystem are phased by humans and this causes a change in behavior for the animals. From predators to prey, all animals are affected by human interaction with the environment. The changes that human speech occurs start a domino effect that results in whole ecosystems being negatively affected. Also, it is intriguing to me that gentle human tones can cause predators such as mountain lions to flee. In addition to this, not all animals are noticed to be scared of human tones such as deer, deer activity increased when the sound of a conversation between two hikers was played.
Ramya Paritala
Out of the three articles, I saw that the article titled “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” seemed most intriguing. It’s commonly known that humans do have an impact on the habitat and ecosystems of animals. For example, humans have been known to be behind processes such as deforestation, which can harm the habitats of many animals. Overpopulation is also another factor that impacts the environment and ecosystems in which animals reside. Too many people means less space for animals to roam freely as they wish. Also as modern technology is revolutionizing today’s industry, more factories are being used. This essentially means more smoke or contamination of the air that animals breathe, which causes pollution. Humans are responsible for many harmful factors on animals. Most human impacts are done knowingly, even though humans know they are harming a whole ecosystem. However, a human’s voice would have never been thought of as an impact as harmful as other impacts. In this article, I was surprised to learn that the sound of a humans voice, even reading poetry in a gentle voice as ecologist Justin Soraci did, can “shake entire food webs” of animals such as mountain lions. It is ironic to think that most people are normally scared of mountain lions but in this case, the mountain lions flee at the sound of humans conversing. As it says in the article, this just further shows that humans “are among the scariest of animals—a super-predator that terrifies even the carnivores that themselves incite terror”. This existing fear can disrupt the normalcy of an ecosystem. In this case, some mountain lions fled while others stopped eating entirely. This leaves me wondering if humans start to populate more and more of these animals’ habitats, will the remaining animal population trickle off into extinction?
In the article, “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice,” I learned that the simplest human actions can have great consequences on an entire ecosystem. I already knew that humans negatively impact many living organisms. Humans cut down trees, therefore destroying many creature’s homes. They also cause water and air pollution. Humans hunt and kill many animals. Humans disrupt many ecosystems everyday, however I never knew that they can disrupt an ecosystem just by talking. In this article, it said how an ecologist put some speakers up that would play his colleagues reading poetry. He was not trying to see the animal’s reactions but he learned that predators such as the mountain lions and bobcats feared the sound. Some stopped eating and a few even fled. There were other studies and experiments that showed how animals reacted to the human voice. When the human voice was played to badgers, they were really disturbed by it. They even ignored the wolves sounds and were hardly fearful of the growls of the bears. When they played the human voice to mountain lions, the lions left almost eighty percent of the time. When they played frog noises to them, the lions did not care. I also learned that the animals that benefited were the mice and rats. With the predators being less active due to the human sound, they were able to run more freely. Our voice can have a butterfly affect and can impact an entire ecosystem. In conclusion, I learned that humans can disturb many animal’s way of life by just existing.
In the article, “Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age,” I learned that a process called autophagy handles dysfunctional structures and proteins. If this does not work out correctly then the waste in the cell builds up and it eventually dies. A study showed that as cells age, their ability to preform autophagy declines. This makes the neuron’s risk of a genetic or environmental problem greater. The researchers believe that this can be supported because disorders such as ALS, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s all come with age. There is a component inside the cell called an autophagosome which takes in proteins that were folded incorrectly or structures that no longer work and fuses with a lysosome. A lysosome has enzymes that help break down the “trash.” This allows the components to be recycled and reused. This keeps the neurons healthy, but without it the waste builds up and the cell will die. As the cell ages the number of autophagosomes decreases. This produces more waste buildup which can eventually kill a cell. In conclusion, I learned that waste build up is influenced by a very important process called an autophagy. If this process failed then waste would build up and a cell will die.
Both of these articles really interested me. I learned a lot of new information by reading these and I definitely enjoyed them.
I found the article “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” the most alarming. Humans have already dented the habitats of animals and the general ecosystems of our planet with deforestation and pollution. Our voices are the super predators that scare even mountain lions. Like other predators, we create a landscape of fear; we cause a chain of inactivity in the ecosystem with just our speech. For instance, the recordings of dogs have reduced the activity of raccoons on the gulf islands, this led to an increase of fish in the pools and less foraging. Another experiment was conducted on badgers, who were not so alarmed when the recording of wolves were played. They were a bit more cautious when they heard the growls of bears in addition to the wolves. But, even the gentle murmurings of humans had a vastly different effect. These badgers were profoundly alarmed and far more paranoid. They treated humans as a super predator. This same effect is reflected in the way humans have scared away mountain lions in the study conducted in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Meanwhile, the rodents such as mice took advantage of their lack of presence and foraged more intensely. This is a great demonstration of the power humans have. As Suraci advised, human beings should limit their time around animals as to not disturb the natural ecosystem that has been already set. But we have yet to figure out if humans have a detrimental impact on their behaviors. We don’t know if we can cause animals to change their feeding-habits permanently, have a smaller chance to reproduce, or grow very stressed just from our voices. Humans have already caused a great deal of damage to the environment with hunting and destroying habitats for raw materials. But, this study has shown that our mere voice itself is enough to disturb entire food webs in an ecosystem. Hopefully, we can learn to limit ourselves from having entire interactions with animals, which can easily impact their daily life.
After i read “The Disturbing sound of human voice” it enlightened me how the simplest of human activity can change the coarse of an entire food chain. With human sound and activity already disturbing wild life through loss of habitat or through hunting. But to top it all off our voices even scare animals and the most ferocious ones that we humans are afraid off. Based on the research that was conducted by that article it showed how when top predators flee from areas where human sound is present the lower food chain animals strive and use that opportunity to their advantage by growing in numbers and thriving in places where they wouldn’t be due to these predators. What’s also amazing is the fact that the human noises that were used for the research were soft human noises not loud or noisy. This also showed that no matter the type human voice, its effects were still the same either way. Furthermore, only the big predators were affected by the human noise not other type of animals which showed how the food chain changed as whole depending on where the noise was. The lower food chain animals grew in numbers when the predators left in fear.
Many people suffer neurodegenerative diseases throughout America and the cause of these diseases was highlighted in the article, “Taking Out The Protein Garbage Becomes More Difficult As Neurons Age”. Cells have to dispose of their trash through a process known as autophagy. Though, as cells age, they are no longer able to carry out autophagy. This leads to the risk of neurodegenerative disease. The decline in the ability to carry out autophagy makes the neurons more vulnerable and therefore more susceptible to the genetic or environmental risks. A study was done on mice to prove that WIPI2B, a protein, plays a very important role in autophagy. In some mice, the protein was removed, whereas, in other mice, the protein was turned on. Both of these variations were observed and researchers noticed that when the protein was turned on, the process of autophagy started up but when the protein was removed from neurons, the process halted. I found this article fascinating because it gave me a chance to understand how diseases such as Alzheimer’s form. If someone is genetically more susceptible to diseases such as Alzheimer’s when they start showing warning signs of the disease, would it be possible to insert DNA that would be translated into the WIPI2B protein?
Many times people are afraid to travel places because they are terrified of the wild animals. Recent studies show that wild animals may actually be more afraid of humans. Their fear not only affects them but also ripples down to affect the rest of the ecosystem. Justin Suraci, an ecologist, and his team studied the behavior of top predators in their natural habitat, places where humans do not typically go. They studied how the animals reacted to the sounds of humans. Even the softest of human noises bothered them or made them jittery. These reactions of the predators affect how the prey behave as well, creating a “landscape of fear”. The researchers decided to set up speakers in the natural habitat of the predators. The speakers would either play sounds of other animals or of humans. When they studied the results they noticed that sounds of other animals didn’t bother the predators and, therefore, didn’t affect the rest of the community. Though, when the speakers played sounds of humans, predators either moved very carefully or avoided the area altogether.
The article, “The Disturbing Sound Of A Human Voice”, opened my eyes to an upsetting realization; just because I am not hunting animals, does not mean that I do not have an impact on them. If I'm walking in the woods, I am scaring them. Even if I mean no harm, I am upsetting them. This article caused me to remember something I learned about last year. There used to be many deer in Yellowstone National Park and in order to reduce the number of deer, wolves were brought in. The wolves lowered the population of deer and in turn stabilized rivers, increased the population of other species and brought in new species due to the increase in vegetation. When one species is affected, eventually the entire ecosystem is affected, This article also opened up a new forum of questions, the most important one being: how can we protect the wildlife? I propose that we segregate areas of wildlife specifically for them. I also believe that it is important to advertise the effect we have on them. Many people don’t know about their effect on these animals and maybe if they were better informed they would make an effort to avoid being in the wildlife.
I was surprised to learn that the animals humans find fearsome can also fear humans just from their voice after reading the article “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice.” Animals such as mountain lions can stray away from areas where they know humans will be present. This was proven from the research ecologist Justin Surachi found. Furthermore, they noted that the sense of fear caused from tracks left behind from their predators will impact the way some animals will move around. Similarly, A human voice will lead to the butterfly effect which ripples through the ecosystem impacting the actions of every predator and prey. This impact is negative to the animals since mating is decreased and not foraging enough can cause to an early death. However, this article makes me question how lions and other big cats act in zoos. Are they in constant fear with the constant sound of human voices? Humans already cause enough damage to the environment from pollution and deforestation, but causing damage just from talking was something very unexpected to read about.
The article that I read was “The Disturbing Sound of A Human Voice”. This article went on to talk about how the mere sound of humans could disrupt an entire ecosystem. Finding out that huge predators like mountain lions and bobcats are afraid or cautious around humans is riveting. Ecologist Justin Suraci described the unease of wildlife as a “landscape of fear”. Suraci and his team set up multiple speakers all throughout the area of wildlife they were studying and played various sounds of human speech to see how the animals would react. They played talking at a normal sound, poetry, and regular conversation. They found out that all the animals were on there toes and tended to stray away from where the sound was being played. The bobcats started to eat elsewhere, the opossums would forage away from there and the rats and mice began to take advantage of the lack of predators. This article made me realize that us humans have so much authority over the rest of the world. We may be scared of huge predators, but in reality they are the ones who are scared of us.
I read the article "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice." The article explains how the sound of a human voice greatly affects the way the animals of that region act. While sounds of other animals barely fazed the animals, the sound of humans made them turn around, leave, and avoid locations with the voices. Whole ecosystems change due to the voices, as predators avoid going to areas with voices nearby the prey seen to increase in their population changing the whole ecosystem. The voices cause a butterfly effect from a voice to a large change in an ecosystem. Just as animals react to human voices they also react to the perceived presence of spiders, hawks, sharks, and wolves. Just as other animals fear and avoid these animals they fear and avoid humans also. And as tests proceed it showed that larger carnivores acted similarly. Mountain loins left 80% of the time. With these affects humans can change the landscape with the aspect of fear. And in the future the next step would be to see next step is to see if these changes are detrimental to these animals.
Out of all the abilities that humans possess, our voice is one that had not expected to be the most menacing. We had thought of our impact on nature to be that of destroying habitats, but unbeknownst to us, our voice leave a mark too. In the article “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” by Ed Young, they detail their research concerning the impact of our voices on the behaviors of animals in the wild. Through the observations of Justin Suraci’s team, it was observed that, even though recordings of poetry were played, it had spooked the animals. Even top predators had been terrified of such blissful sounds, showing that regardless of the animal, our voices instilled fear in them. The research team had placed speakers in the Santa Cruz mountains to observe how different tones of voice would affect the behavior of animals. They had observed that after playing the sounds, the animals had avoided the areas from which the sound was played, creating a mental map of the terrain and treating it as a risk for them. This fear can reshape an ecosystem as the sounds could alter an animals involvement in a particular area. Though it might scare many animals, some have taken this as an advantage. When the predators free, animals such as mice and rats become more active, as they foraged more aggressively due to lack of obstruction. Through this, animals are becoming more fearful of us. Our impact on ecosystems is ever so expanding, and if change isn’t made, then the effects could be detrimental. We are pushing the limits of the environment when we aren’t mindful, only threatening the delicate system that nature is. Through thoughtful coexistence, there can be a less harmful impact on the world.
The article "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice" intrigued me in which I have never thought about the effect human voice has on ecosystems. In school and on social media, there is much emphasis placed on the destruction humans cause to earth by enhancing deforestation, global warming, and garbage in oceans. However, this article brings to light that just talking, something almost all humans do everyday, can wreak havoc on top predators. In general, the tracks, smells, and sounds of a predator create a "landscape of fear" as shown when ecologist Justin Suraci and his advisor Liana Zanette observed that raccoons in the Gulf Islands foraged less when they heard dog recordings. Furthermore, Suraci showed that humans have an even greater effect on prey, for badgers were much more disturbed by human speech than sounds of wolves and bears. Then, as scientists placed speakers in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the sound of human voices made mountain lions in the area flee. Also, bob cats became more nocturnal, skunks became more stationary, and opossums did not search for food as much. Naturally, rodents benefitted from the absence of predators, indicating that humans affect both upper and lower levels of the food chain. Essentially, from this article, I took away a greater understanding of how much of an impact humans have on other organisms. As the text points out as well, scientists may view human induced behavioral changes as harmful or helpful to ecosystems. Either way, it is very important to try and learn about the interactions amongst biotic and abiotic components within and between ecosystems. As scientists do so, perhaps we will learn more about mass extinction on our planet, preserving biodiversity, and maintaining a sustainable Earth for future generations. Now, not only do I think that the physical fragmentation and pollution we add to the Earth is quite terrifying, but it is also frightening to me that just walking and talking through a forest can have a greater impact on the Earth than we would initially think.
The article, “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice,” has provided interesting points on one of the many ways humans have affected nature. When Ed Yong stated, “Fear reshaped the entire beach,” I made a connection to history. In history we had learned how many dictators had instilled fear into the citizens to get what they wanted. Similarly, by establishing our dominance, we make the animals fear us, so they run away from humans. Then we are able to destroy wildlife habitats without worry of being attacked. This has both pros and cons. On one hand we are able to build shelters for our growing population and we do not have to fear an animal attack. This is backed up by Kaitlyn Gaynor from UC Berkeley, who makes a point on how our voices could allow “large mammals to coexist with humans”(Yong). On the other hand, we are disrupting the ecosystem, which can lead to major consequences in the near future. Gaynor also backs this up by explaining how human behavior can make it more difficult for animals to survive and reproduce. We are animals too, and as animals we should give back to the wildlife by being more respectful to the animals.
“The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice” claims that the sound of a human voice can terrify wild organisms, including top predators. Evidence of a predator’s presence such as the scents, noises, and tracks they leave behind can steer away any prey from even entering the evidenced area. Ecologist John Suraci and his team played sounds of humans’ voices in the environments of both local badgers and carnivores to prove this; both groups recoiled in fear as a result. Such a scare, according to the article, can disrupt entire food webs. The recordings mainly decreased the activity of animals higher on the food chain, allowing animals lower in the chain to take advantage of the space usually dominated by their predators. An alteration in the food web such as this could potentially make it more difficult for animals to survive and reproduce. However, the article adds that human presence in wild habitats could assist animals in adapting to coexistence with humans on earth. The second article regarding removing protein “trash” from cells discusses a new finding that in neurons, any inhibition to
autophagy, the process of removing waste from cells, neurodegenerative disease can be caused. As cells age, their ability to perform autophagy decreases. Various diseases that could potentially afflict a human due to a weakened ability to perform autophagy include Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease. During autophagy, an autophagosome surrounds itself around waste structures and proteins and fuses with a lysosome containing the enzymes needed to break the waste down. If this waste is not discarded,
neurons could die. It was further found that defects in autophagosomes allow cell waste to accumulate at the synapses, where neurotransmitters travel across. With this, there will be difficulties in communication between neurons and possibly even neurodegenerative diseases. It has been determined, however, that activating protein WIPI2B assists autophagy and may be a key component in treating neurodegeneration associated with aging.
The experiment described in the article "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice" seems to be missing key information. It does not specify how far apart the speakers were which is important because the animals' confusion could be a result of them hearing the same nose coming from multiple locations. The article states that the experimenters "played these recordings through 25 speakers, covering a square-kilometer grid" but this does not specify whether or not the same sound played from multiple locations simultaneously which would be confusing even to humans. Another clarification that would be important in this experiment is whether or not the speakers played the human speech louder than humans speak on average. If the speakers were overly loud, this could have been what frightened the animals and not just human speech. Without this information, there are too many factors that could have caused the animals to become unnerved other than human speech. In addition, if human speech "terrifies even the carnivores that themselves incite terror" as stated in the article, why do big cats attack humans rather than escape in fear? Another experiment was conducted in which the sounds of wolves and bears did not disturb badgers but human speech did. However, because this experiment was conducted in an English forest, this reaction could simply have been due to the fact that badgers are familiar with the sounds of local predators who live in the forest, unlike human speech which would be strange to hear in the middle of a forest. Even if human speech greatly impacts predator behavior, the animals tested in these experiments such as mountain lions do not regularly interact near humans.
By Pranav Narang
Today, I read the article "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice", which demonstrates some of the key effects of human sounds on animal populations. Not only have we scared a variety of wildlife, our voice has much potential to disrupt food chains and even manipulate environmental conditions. In addition, our sound waves extend to large animals as well, such as carnivores which are usually the dominant species. The author reflects upon how carnivores in nature are what humans expect other animals to fear, but we are truly the most terrifying carnivores as shown through numerous experiments. It was quite intriguing to realize and read about how our voices can affect nature just as our habitat destroying or pollution. Moreover, some examples of these types of experiments are how humans have scared mountain lions, or affected the environment at beaches through our voices. It is truly fascinating to discover how we can be dominant through just reading the news or reciting poetry. However, to keep nature intact, keeping limits may be vital towards human access with animals.
The article I chose to read this week was “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice”. The article discussed an experiment where ecologist Justin Suraci and his team set up speakers in the Santa Cruz Mountains that played recordings of human voices. Suraci wanted to see what affect human voices have on the wild life. This experiment was based off a similar experiment where recordings of dog voices were able to scare off raccoons. But, something that was unexpected was that the rock pools filled with more fish, worms, and crabs. I had mixed feelings when I read this. One part of me was surprised because I never thought about what would happen if the raccoons run away. But, another part of me thought this made sense because the fish, worms, and crabs and many more small animals would look for an opportunity when they can safely come out to the beach without worrying about the predators. So going back to the human voices experiment, when the speakers played animal voices the larger predators didn’t seem to care much. But once the humans voices were played, most of the predators fled. It is possible that these big animals are scared of humans because of what we do to their habitats. We are willing to destroy the home for these animals or even kill some animals for our own personal benefits. This was very shocking to me because I always thought that humans are scared of the really big animals, but in this case it’s the other way around.
The article Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine explains how a decline in cellular waste removal can lead to neurodegenerative brain diseases. Autophagy is the essential process when a cell discards of waste such as dysfunctional structures and aggregated proteins. It starts when misfolded proteins and damaged structures are engulfed by an autophagosome, almost like a trash bag. This is then fused with a lysosome that has the proper enzymes to breakdown the waste to the. Be reused again. However, as neurons continue aging, autophagy starts to decline which is problematic as neurons do not replicate. When autophagy fails the waste will build up and will eventually kill the cell. A team collected data on the rates of autophagy within the neurons of mice in different age groups. It was seen that in the formation of autophagosomes in aged mice did have a stalling and often came out to be misshapen. Interestingly enough, in recent studies deceased donors who had neurodegenerative diseases had misformed autophagosomes. An important protein to note is WIPI2B, which when turned on in aged mice corrected the autophagosome formation. While taking out this protein in the young neurons caused the formation to be stalled. I think the research on this topic is very interdicting and important. Scientists are able to observe what errors within neurons can lead to diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. It also can help to explain why many older people get certain types of neurodegenerative diseases so commonly.
The article I chose to read this week was "The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice". This article was very interesting to me because I previously wasn't aware of the implications of human voices on animals in the ecosystem. For animals, the tracks, smells, and sounds of predators can cause tremendous fear of prey and other species. This creates what ecologists call a “landscape of fear”. What is astonishing about this is that humans cause the most fear out of all the species in the world. In the article, an experiment was conducted to further test Ecologist Justin Suraci and advisor Liana Zanette theories of this topic. First they places speakers around the natural habitat of predators such as mountain lions, bobcats, badgers, wolves, bears etc. They patiently waited to observe how the animals would react to human conversation. The result was that the animals who heard the calm voices of human speech turned back- in fact nearly 80% of them. Prey tended to turn the other direction and leave the area than top predators such as wolves and bears. However, if predator noises such as growls and grunts were played such as snakes, spiders, wolves, and sharks, a good amount of their prey would also leave. Although these species of prey avoided predators, they avoided humans significantly more. This experiment shows us that we effect other animals tremendously more than we think. It is mesmerizing to know that calm human voices such as reading poetry and talking peacefully can disrupt the food chain of that magnitude. In the future, we must take precautions to preserve the food chain to the best of our ability. Unfortunately, there will be major change to the food chain in a negative way if action is not taken.
I have read the article “Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age” and learned how crucial autophagy is within a cell. This is a process in which the cell effectively removes harmful ‘trash’ within itself. The failure of this process has been suggested to be the risk factor of neurodegenerative diseases such as ASL, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer's. Neurons are unable to regenerate, which means there’s no way to replace damaged neurons. With this in mind, there is not much a person with, for example, Alzheimer's can do because of the lack of cure. However, experiments performed on mice have shown that the protein WIPI2B from aged mice returns the normal synthesis of autophagosome formation in aged neurons, bringing the autophagy process back online. On the other hand, when the exact protein is taken from younger mice, the process is stalled. Although it seems so close to solve, it truly amazes me how the human body has so many secrets and process that we still don’t know or understand. This makes me wonder the chance of creating supplements containing WIPI2B to keep the process of autophagy going- beginning the research on humans.
The article “Taking out the protein garbage becomes more difficult as neurons age” displays the importance of autophagy in the cells. The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine proposes that the deterioration of autophagy in aged neurons explains the neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. To begin with, autophagosomes first engulfs the proteins and damaged structures. Then it fuses with the lysosomes, which contains the enzymes essential to decompose the waste and reuse it. This process of waste removal keeps the neurons healthy. “Think city streets during sanitation workers strike,” Stavoe said. The strike would cause the city to overflow with garbage, polluting the air and harming us. To relate this back to the reading, in the absence of autophagy, neurons would eventually perish due to the buildup of waste. To summarize, both pollution and waste in the cells would lead to diseases. In an experiment, scientists were able to reveal that aging declines the number of autophagosomes produced by the mice. However, the protein WIPI2B restores the autophagosome formation and regains the autophagy process. This information can help decrease the risk of neurodegenerative diseases or even find a possible cure for the disease.
After reading, “The Disturbing Sound of the Human Voice, I cannot say I’m surprised that humans are responsible for disrupting ecosystems. However, I do find it interesting that it was simply our voices this time. Justin Suraci, an ecologist, and his colleagues strung up a set of speakers playing recordings of Suraci and his colleagues reading poetry. They would discover that even the gentlest of human speech was enough to disrupt the habits of even the top predators. This is evidence that humans are the most feared species on this planet. We, unintentionally, have created a “landscape of fear” forcing wildlife to change how they move over physical terrain. According to Liana Zanette raccoons in the Gulf Islands spent less time foraging on local beaches if they heard recordings of dogs. The rock pools filled with more fish, worms, and crabs as a result. Fear reshaped the entire beach. As humans continue to destroy habitats to make room for construction, we will see more and more ecosystems disrupted. There are already so many misplaced animals and habitats destroyed as a result of deforestation. Where will the wildlife reside, if we continue to invade their habitats?
After reading, “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice,” I am quite astonished after finding out that even the most simplest of sounds can scare and cause fear amongst the animals. Its fascinating to see that humans can scare the largest of the animals with their voices. Additionally, studies have shown that animals are more disturbed by humans than their actual predators. Multitudes of habitats and forests have been disrupted just by humans. The lives of these innocent animals are getting destroyed as a result of the actions of humans. Humans have affected animals tremendously and now is the time to step back before more animals lose their lives. From affecting the food chain to the whole ecosystem in general, humans have to resolve this dilemma and find a solution. Overall, it was quite intriguing to learn about how the voices of humans could affect the animals and its ecosystems in detail.
The article I read is “The Disturbing Sound of a Human Voice.” The article emphasizes how the human voice seems to disturb animals similar to how the sound of predators disturbs prey. It suggests that human voices and sounds put fear in animals and tend to make them more cautious of their surroundings. According to an experiment in Santa Cruz, even large animals, including top predators, become intimidated by human sounds in a way that can disrupt an entire food web. This proves that besides large predators like mountain lions and bobcats, humans themselves can be considered super predators because they scare carnivores that themselves are terrifying. I find this interesting because typically, normal humans like you and me are afraid of large cats or mountain lions. Come to find out, they are scared of us too!
Post a Comment