BROADCASTS.com

b"Those of us in the northern hemisphere are thinking a lot about island life right about now, where it\\u2019s warm and sunny. But there are islands everywhere, not just the tropics, and the animals on islands often evolve to look strange and different from their mainland cousins. Thanks to Richard E. and Lucy for their\\xa0suggestions this week!\\n\\nA fossa:\\n\\n\\n\\nA tamaraw, miniature water buffalo:\\n\\n\\n\\nA Socotra starling, my new favorite bird:\\n\\n\\n\\nAdorable little Galapagos penguin:\\n\\n\\n\\nA dragonblood tree, good grief!\\n\\n\\n\\nA blue baboon. It's not a baboon but it is blue:\\n\\n\\n\\nA ground dragon:\\n\\n\\n\\nFurther listening:\\n\\nThe unlocked Patreon bonus episode about vampire finches on the Galapagos Islands\\n\\nShow transcript:\\n\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\n\\nIn a lot of episodes, we talk about animals from islands like the Galapagos and the Canaries. There\\u2019s a reason why islands give rise to strange animals. This week we\\u2019ll focus on island life\\u2014how island habitats lead to unique animals and how introduced animals can destroy an entire island ecosystem in a matter of a few years. Massive thanks to listener Richard E., who suggested the topics of introduced animals and island life!\\n\\nIslands, of course, are surrounded by water and isolated from larger landmasses as a result. Some are close to the mainland so it\\u2019s easy for animals to swim or float across to the island. In cold areas, animals can sometimes walk across ice to islands. But other islands are more remote, or used to be close to the mainland but were pushed farther away by tectonic forces.\\n\\nOnce a piece of land is cut off from the mainland, the animals and plants on that piece of land start to evolve independently of the larger population of animals and plants on the mainland. If the island is isolated enough that potential predators can\\u2019t get to it, the animals already living on the island start to adapt to life with no or few predators. As a result, they may appear tame when humans arrive.\\n\\nAnd that is where the problems start. Humans don\\u2019t just arrive alone. We bring other animals with us, either on purpose, like dogs, cats, and livestock, or by accident, like rats and mice. And these animals, along with humans, can destroy an entire island habitat really easily.\\n\\nI\\u2019ll use one of Richard\\u2019s examples, since it\\u2019s a good one and not one you\\u2019d think of when thinking of islands. The red squirrel is native to Europe and parts of Asia, but it also lives in the UK and Ireland. It\\u2019s usually red-brown in color, although some populations can be brown, gray, or even black. The belly is white. It has long ear tufts and a poofy tail. It lives in trees and eats seeds, nuts, berries, fungi, and occasionally eggs or baby birds.\\n\\nBut remember, Ireland and the UK are islands. And in the 1870s, someone thought it would be really great to import eastern gray squirrels from North America and release them in parks in the UK. In Ireland, in 1911 someone gave a bunch of gray squirrels as a wedding gift, which is not a great gift, honestly, and they got loose because of course they did. They\\u2019re squirrels.\\n\\nGrey squirrels are larger than red squirrels and don\\u2019t have ear tufts. They eat the same foods red squirrels do. They also carry a disease called squirrel parapoxvirus that doesn\\u2019t bother them but which kills red squirrels. The population of red squirrels has dropped substantially as introduced gray squirrel populations climb in the UK and Ireland. The red squirrel is now protected, with conservation efforts in place that are making a difference. But that just goes to show how easy it is to lose even a well-established species on large islands when an outside species is introduced.\\n\\nOn islands, especially smaller islands, small animals tend to grow larger overall and big animals tend to grow smaller overall. This is called Foster\\u2019s rule. It comes about partly because there are fewer predators but limited resources."