Wildlife

Manatee Feeding

Emergency measures to provide lettuce to starving manatees in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon appear to be curbing the record number of deaths that have occurred among the sea cows during the last year.

Such unprecedented human intervention follows more than 1,100 of the manatees dying of starvation due to their usual seagrass diet being depleted because of water pollution caused by agricultural activities. The manatees initially did not eat the lettuce thrown on the surface for them because they were used to looking down as they grazed on the seagrass.

However, wildlife authorities said the mammals eventually changed their eating habits after they understood the lettuce was good food.

Mosquito Attraction

Researchers say they have found that the best way to avoid being targeted by mosquitoes is to shift your wardrobe to colours the biters are not attracted to.

Biologists from the University of Washington found that after the insects catch a whiff of carbon dioxide from human breath, they target anyone wearing the longer- wavelength colours of red, orange, black and cyan for their next blood meals. Writing in the journal Nature Communications, Jeffrey Riffell says that while the insects are attracted to human breath, sweat and skin temperature, they don’t even bat an eye at those wearing green, purple, blue and white.

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