After last week's post on whether the bears can smell the menstruation (hehe, I can't get over that quote), I was inundated with questions and tips for papers. People asked if menstruation attracted sharks (answer: no one has tested it, right now shark attacks are 9.2:1 male:female, but that's probably due to differences in being in the right place at the right time, rather than being on your period. But I think I need to dangle some bloody tampons in shark infested waters...for science), if dogs were attracted to the smell of menstruation (I've been looking and looking for studies, but apparently that hasn't been done either), all sorts of things. But the vast majority of these studies...haven't been done. From all the stories I've heard of animals being attracted to menstrual blood, you'd have thought every female Homo sapiens on the planet would be ripped apart by wolves the instant she started menstruating.

But we're all still HERE. So I have to think that, until there are studies proving otherwise, most other mammals, and hopefully sharks, don't really care if you're seeping a little bit of endometrium from your nether regions.

But there IS one species, apparently that DOES care.

The brown tree snake.

Oh hai, I'm here for yer sssssecretions

Chiszar et al. "Response of brown tree snakes (Boiga irregularis) to human blood" Journal of Chemical Ecology, 1993.

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While Sci was listening eagerly to Kate Clancy's appearance on Skeptically Speaking last Sunday (you'll be able to download the episode soon), I was flabbergasted to find out that there is a rumor out there that, if you go out hiking on your period...you might attract BEARS.

(I totally forgot about this until someone on Twitter pointed it out. Awesome)

Bears?!

Not only that, the rumor was apparently widespread enough that someone actually did a study to find out if it was true.

Which is good, I'd hate to fear for my life while hiking because I'm shedding my uterine lining. I'd like the think bears are more sensible than that.

Mmm! Do I smell TAMPONS?!

But I'll admit, a part of me was a little worried. After all, I have been camping, and had our campsite raided by bears, because someone left their toothpaste out of the bear box. Apparently bears in Yosemite National Park love them some minty freshness. And if toothpaste is on the menu, why not tampons? I mean, bears will eat most anything, right? Luckily, science is here for us, and science wants us to know, it's ok to menstruate around bears. Black bears, anyway.

Rogers et al. "Reactions of black bears to human menstrual odors" The Journal of Wildlife Management, 1991.

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One of the best things about being a science blogger is that every day, it seems, I learn something new. I mean, I learned something new most days before I was a blogger, but now, NOW I trawl the internet looking for the things that make you go OMG. And today, I found something that is wild and weird on two different levels.

This, you guys, is the binturong.

Awwwww.

The binturong has a couple of cool and odd things about it. The first is that it apparently smells like buttered popcorn. Something to do with their scent glands. I hear that Laelaps is all set to ferret the secret of that out, so I'm focusing on something else odd, but which is actually common to several groups of mammals: teat ownership.

Schoknect, P. "Growth and teat ownership in a litter of binturongs" Zoo Biology, 1984.

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Sea monsters. People are continually fascinated by them. You've got those who believe fervently that there are still undiscovered monsters of the deep, and then you have those who wonder what the monsters we've already sighted...really are. Did someone really see Nessie? Or did they really see something else? And if they saw something else, what is it likely that they saw?

Well, how about a whale. And his penis.

(Is that a sea monster in your pocket or are you happy to see me?)

Paxton et al. "Cetaceans, sex and sea serpents: an analysis of the Egede accounts of a “most dreadful monster” seen off the coast of Greenland in 1734" Archives of Natural History, 2005.

Oh yes, there are pictures below the fold. You know you want to look.

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Sci is off on vacation for a few days this time of year (to my credit, I really think I earned it). Unfortunately, on the VERY FIRST DAY, I went and took a massive fall (which is what happens when you go running with an inexperienced Golden Retriever, who is very sweet, and was VERY SORRY).

And as I was lying there on the ground, bleeding from various places (don't worry, it turned out very minor), all I could say was a string of various curses. Mostly out of sheer embarrassment, but also because I knew about this study, and I knew how to kill the pain!

Stephens, Atkins, Kingston. "Swearing as a response to pain" NeuroReport, 2009.

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Sci saw the PR announcement for this paper, and I TOTALLY wanted to cover it. Unfortunately, I was prevented by severe Katsaridaphobia. Luckily, I contacted the Fantastic Bug_Girl, who was VERY pleased to take this on for me! Many kudos to Bug_Girl, esp since I only had to start freaking out when I uploaded the photos. And make sure to stay to the end for an ENTOMOLOGICAL CHRISTMAS CAROL!!!

Most humans–and I include quite a few entomologists in that category–love to hate roaches. This is a sad thing, because the vast majority of roaches never set foot (feet?) in a kitchen. The few species that tap-dance around in your sugar bowl are just a tiny piece of a huge spectrum of amazing roachy biodiversity in the world.

Over 99% of all roach species are innocent soil and forest dwellers, and are important for ecosystem functioning. Some of them can leap like grasshoppers. Some of them can run 4 times faster than a cheetah (well, in terms of body lengths traveled per second, anyway.) The group of insects with the highest frequency of parental care? Roaches. One estimate puts roaches at 24% of all arthropod biomass in tree canopies, and 43% of arthropod biomass in alluvial forests. There are a LOT of roaches in the world, and you’ve never seen or heard of most of them. H. E. Evans may have said it best:

“The study of roaches may lack the aesthetic values of bird-watching and the glamour of space flight, but nonetheless it would seem to be one of the more worthwhile of human activities.” [Life on a Little Known Planet]

This week a new paper came out that highlights the importance of roaches to an animal we have kinder feelings about:

The red cockaded Woodpecker

Unusual macrocyclic lactone sex pheromone of Parcoblatta lata, a primary food source of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. Eliyahu et. al PNAS Dec. 19 2011

The red-cockaded woodpecker is an adorable little bird that lives in old pine forests. Historically their range covered much of the eastern US, but these days they are down to remnant populations in the southern US, and they’ve been listed as an endangered species since 1970.

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