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And what to do with silica packets.
Dear Reader,
What Feel-Good news does Dot have for my dear Readers? Today I celebrate adorableness and those who cherish and protect it.
Let’s kick off with a story about a hedgehog-loving woman in the UK who, after rescuing two abandoned “hoglets” (!!) after their mother was hit by a car, established a nonprofit that she called – wait to be overcome with cuteness! — Prickles in a Pickle! And this prickle-rescuring heroine is on the scene not a moment too soon, given that Britain has lost about one-third of its hedgehogs since 2000. A big part of the problem is habitat fragmentation — specifically in the form of garden fences, which prevent the hedgehogs from moving from garden to garden (where they feast on insects and seek out places to nest). But residents are responding by creating “hedgehog highways,” tiny holes cut in fences that allow the spiny critters to roam freely. A 2021 study estimates that there are now about 120,000 of these “highways,” which might sound like a lot, but in fact represents just about 1% of the gardens in the UK. Nonetheless, while there’s plenty of room for improvement, a “hedgehog officer” with the charity Hedgehog Street (could this get any more adorable??) reports that there are signs of an increase in the animals’ numbers. Let’s all offer up a resounding “awwwwww” to the unsung hedgehog heroes of the UK.
And now, we’ll move on to the equally adorable but considerably larger mascots of the climate crisis, polar bears.
One of Dot’s favorite Bluedot stories features the town of Churchill, Manitoba, which has learned to live in harmony with these white giants. (Churchill kids learn the phone number of the Polar Bear Alert Hotline before they learn their own birthdays, our reporter wrote.) Much of the news about polar bears focuses on their struggles, including the fact that as sea ice shrinks, so too does the bears’ access to their main diet, ringed seals. So it’s heartening to learn that, just maybe, these behemoth bears are more resilient than we thought. News out of Norway’s Svalbard archipelago tells us that, “on a collection of rocky islands perched at the edge of the Arctic Ocean, polar bears are fatter than they were two decades ago, showing no signs of the distress hitting polar bear populations in parts of Canada and the U.S.”
What’s producing this plumpness? Scientists aren’t sure, pointing to a couple of potential reasons, including a shift in diet toward reindeer, walruses, harbor seals, and bird eggs. It’s even possible that, given the small population of the bears due to overhunting, they haven’t come up against the consequences of a dwindling food supply.
But … let us focus on the fat promise of healthy polar bears, a species that’s, perhaps, more adaptable than we knew.
Positively,
Dot
Dot tells you what to do with silica gel packets.
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