Uncategorized – Alison Pearce Stevens https://apstevens.com Adventures in nature and science Wed, 17 Dec 2025 23:11:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://i0.wp.com/apstevens.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/cropped-site-icon.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Uncategorized – Alison Pearce Stevens https://apstevens.com 32 32 79253410 Companion Animal Psychology blog https://apstevens.com/companion-animal-psychology-blog/ Wed, 17 Dec 2025 23:11:39 +0000 https://apstevens.com/?p=86444

Dog and cat sniff each other. Text below reads, "Companion animal psychology."

I had a lovely chat with Zazie Todd on her Companion Animal Psychology blog. We talked about conservation dogs, how the nose knows, and why invasive species are a problem we need to address. If you have a few minutes, check it out!

And if you have dogs or cats and want to know more about how to keep them calm and happy, Zazie can help you do that too.

]]> 86444 K-9 Conservationists podcast https://apstevens.com/k-9-conservationists-podcast/ Tue, 09 Dec 2025 19:23:23 +0000 https://apstevens.com/?p=86200

K-9 Conservationists Podcast, featuring a working dog wearing a yellow vest and hard hat, holding a ball in its mouth. Mountains fade off in the distance.

Thanks to Kayla Fratt for hosting me on the K-9 Conservationists podcast to talk about conservation dogs, Detective Dogs, and what makes these incredible canines such valuable team members in global conservation efforts.

Want to listen? (It’s short, just 28 minutes.) You can find it here.

]]> 86200 Gruesome discovery details how bats hunt birds https://apstevens.com/gruesome-discovery-details-how-bats-hunt-birds/ Wed, 29 Oct 2025 15:25:41 +0000 https://apstevens.com/?p=85224 This Halloween, a new bat is showing off its unique hunting skills. Scientists put trackers on greater noctule bats (which, despite their name, are just a few inches long) to learn how they hunt migrating songbirds. Turns out, they are master predators, taking down—and eating—small birds for the ultimate mid-flight meal.

I wrote about it for Science News Explores: Analyze This: Some bats feast on songbirds in midflight.

This mist-netted bat was caught with the remains of its high-flying meal stuck to its chin.
Photo by Jorge Sereno (permission via the study authors)

Did you know? There are 17 species of bats that eat vertebrates (animals with backbones), but only three eat birds. (according to Ilias Foskolos, who I interviewed for the article)

Want to know more? Check out my Science News article about these mic’d bats here.

]]> 85224 Nebraska Book Award! https://apstevens.com/nebraska-book-award/ Thu, 14 Aug 2025 22:42:54 +0000 https://apstevens.com/?p=83396 Huge thanks to the Nebraska Center for the Book for awarding Animal Climate Heroes a Nebraska Book Award for best cover/illustrations. All credit goes to illustrator extraordinaire Jason Ford and designer Jen Keenan for putting together a show-stopper of a book.

Animal Climate Heroes in yellow text above four superhero-styled animals: whale, elephant, echidna, and sea otter. They are leaping out from planet Earth. A gold seal reads AWARD WINNER Nebraska Center for the Book Book Awards Competition.
]]> 83396 Purple exists only in your brain https://apstevens.com/purple-exists-only-in-your-brain/ Thu, 30 Jan 2025 23:36:56 +0000 https://apstevens.com/?p=74567 I learned this today, and it kind of blew my mind. We know a rainbow has seven colors, from red to violet (ROY G BIV). Violet is a true color. But purple isn’t! Purple is a mix between blue and red. When it comes to what our eyes see as different colors, it’s all about the wavelength of light. Red has a long wavelength. Blue is short. And purple combines the two. It’s the ONLY color that combines two completely different wavelengths of light. In terms of true colors (based on wavelength), purple doesn’t exist anywhere–except in your brain.

Although this leaf looks purple, it’s actually a combination of blue and red–your brain doesn’t know what to do with that, so it creates a new, blended, color: purple.

Did you know? Some scientists think the purple pigment found in some plants’ leaves acts as a sunscreen to protect them from too much light. source

Want to know more? Check out this deep dive into the color purple here.

]]> 74567 Pandas and Prose Interview with WWF https://apstevens.com/pandas-and-prose-interview-with-wwf/ Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:24:24 +0000 https://apstevens.com/?p=49062 In honor or World Wildlife Day, I teamed up with the World Wildlife Fund to chat about Animal Climate Heroes and how important it is to find hope and empower kids and adults alike to take action to protect our world.

]]> 49062 Surfing electrons create the northern lights https://apstevens.com/surfing-electrons-create-the-northern-lights/ Mon, 14 Jun 2021 21:31:20 +0000 https://apstevens.com/?p=6544 The flickering glow of the northern and southern lights is known around the world. They occur when electrons from the sun’s solar wind run into Earth’s magnetic field. But in order to build up enough energy to release light, those electrons had to speed up to a whopping 45 million miles per hour! Scientists just discovered how they do that–by surfing along waves in our atmosphere, just like a surfer rides waves in the ocean.

 

 

Did you know? Northern lights can only be seen near the Arctic circle. Southern Lights are only seen near the Antarctic Circle. Every now and then they stray closer to the equator, but not by far. source

Want to know more? Check out the different types of auroras, including arcs, bands, and rays here.

]]> 6544