Snake Mimics a Spider
This is a fantastic video. It’s an Iranian spider-tailed horned viper (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides). Its tail looks like a spider, which the snake uses to fool passing birds looking for a meal.
Entries Tagged "natural security"
Page 1 of 5
Privacy for Tigers
Ross Anderson has some new work:
As mobile phone masts went up across the world’s jungles, savannas and mountains, so did poaching. Wildlife crime syndicates can not only coordinate better but can mine growing public data sets, often of geotagged images. Privacy matters for tigers, for snow leopards, for elephants and rhinos and even for tortoises and sharks. Animal data protection laws, where they exist at all, are oblivious to these new threats, and no-one seems to have started to think seriously about information security.
Video here.
Tomato-Plant Security
I have a soft spot for interesting biological security measures, especially by plants. I’ve used them as examples in several of my books. Here’s a new one: when tomato plants are attacked by caterpillars, they release a chemical that turns the caterpillars on each other:
It’s common for caterpillars to eat each other when they’re stressed out by the lack of food. (We’ve all been there.) But why would they start eating each other when the plant food is right in front of them? Answer: because of devious behavior control by plants.
When plants are attacked (read: eaten) they make themselves more toxic by activating a chemical called methyl jasmonate. Scientists sprayed tomato plants with methyl jasmonate to kick off these responses, then unleashed caterpillars on them.
Compared to an untreated plant, a high-dose plant had five times as much plant left behind because the caterpillars were turning on each other instead. The caterpillars on a treated tomato plant ate twice as many other caterpillars than the ones on a control plant.
Primitive Food Crops and Security
Economists argue that the security needs of various crops are the cause of civilization size:
The argument depends on the differences between how grains and tubers are grown. Crops like wheat are harvested once or twice a year, yielding piles of small, dry grains. These can be stored for long periods of time and are easily transported or stolen.
Root crops, on the other hand, don’t store well at all. They’re heavy, full of water, and rot quickly once taken out of the ground. Yuca, for instance, grows year-round and in ancient times, people only dug it up right before it was eaten. This provided some protection against theft in ancient times. It’s hard for bandits to make off with your harvest when most of it is in the ground, instead of stockpiled in a granary somewhere.
But the fact that grains posed a security risk may have been a blessing in disguise. The economists believe that societies cultivating crops like wheat and barley may have experienced extra pressure to protect their harvests, galvanizing the creation of warrior classes and the development of complex hierarchies and taxation schemes.
Ravens Can Identify Cheaters
Ravens have been shown to identify and remember cheaters among their unkindness.
Friday Squid Blogging: Bobtail Squid Keeps Bacteria to Protect Its Eggs
The Hawaiian Bobtail Squid deposits bacteria on its eggs to keep them safe.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.
Friday Squid Blogging: The Chemistry of Squid Camouflage
Interesting research.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.
Animals vs. Drones
It’s not just humans who dislike the small flying objects. YouTube has videos of drones being stared at quizzically by a moose, harassed by a raven, attacked by a hawk, butted by a ram, knocked out of the sky by a chimpanzee (who planned the whole thing) and a goose, and punched out of the sky by a kangaroo.
And bears hate them, even if they don’t actually attack.
Rabbit Beating Up Snake
It’s the Internet, which means there must be cute animal videos on this blog. But this one is different. Watch a mother rabbit beat up a snake to protect her children. It’s impressive the way she keeps attacking the snake until it is far away from her nest, but I worry that she doesn’t know enough to grab the snake by the neck. Maybe there just aren’t any venomous snakes around those parts.
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.