Category: Science

I have Ring Worm!

Luckily not badly.

Last week I went to my doctor to find out what was causing my itching, mainly in my groin and the skin of my forearms.

Dr. Mount told me that I had ringworm. I do not remember having had it before.

The Cleveland Clinic have the details online and it struck me that I should share the information with you. The source of this article is here. I hope very much that sharing this article is alright with Cleveland Clinic.

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Ringworm

Ringworm is an itchy, contagious fungal infection that causes a ring-shaped pattern on your skin. Over-the-counter and prescription treatments can stop the fungus from spreading to other parts of your body or to others.

Overview

Ringworm (Tinea Corporis) on the skin.
Ringworm is a circular-shaped skin rash caused by a fungal infection.

What is ringworm?

You might be surprised to learn that a fungus — and not a worm — causes ringworm. Fungi thrive in warm and humid areas such as locker rooms and public showers. This common and contagious skin infection gets its name from the red, itchy, ring-shaped skin plaque (a type of scaly rash). It spreads easily and through close contact.

You get ringworm from contact with an infected person, animal or object. Ringworm goes by different names depending on which body part it affects. Ringworm on your body is called tinea corporis. This type of ringworm affects your arms, legs, torso and face. Ringworm is treated with antifungal medication available either over the counter or as a prescription.

Types of ringworm

Ringworm has different names based on where it appears on your body — and it can appear just about anywhere. Ringworm infections include:

  • Athlete’s foot: Also called tinea pedis, this fungal infection causes an itchy, burning skin rash between your toes and on the soles of your feet. Your skin may become scaly and cracked or develop blisters. Sometimes, your feet smell bad.
  • Jock itch: Tinea cruris, or jock itch, causes a red, itchy rash in your groin, upper thighs or rectum. Some people get blisters.
  • Scalp ringworm (tinea capitis): This causes scaly, red, itchy bald spots on your scalp. If left untreated, the bald spots can grow bigger and become permanent.
  • Hands (tinea manuum): Signs of ringworm on your hands include dry, cracked palms and ring-like patches.
  • Beard (tinea barbae): Ringworm appears on your neck, chin and cheeks. The patches might become crusted over or filled with pus.
  • Toenails or fingernails (tinea unguium or onychomycosis): Nails become thick, discolored and deformed.

What does ringworm look like?

Ringworm typically begins as a flat, discolored patch, which may appear red in lighter complexions and brown in darker complexions. The patch has a ring-like or circular shape with a raised, scaly border.

Who gets ringworm?

Ringworm affects people of all ages. You’re more at risk for ringworm if you:

  • Have a weakened immune system or an autoimmune disease like lupus.
  • Participate in high-contact sports, such as wrestling (this ringworm is called tinea gladiatorum).
  • Sweat excessively (hyperhidrosis).
  • Use public locker rooms or public showers.
  • Work closely with animals that might have ringworm.

How common is ringworm?

Ringworm is contagious and extremely common. It can affect 20% to 25% of the world’s population at any given time.

Symptoms and Causes

What are the signs of ringworm?

Signs typically appear between four and 14 days after your skin comes in contact with the fungi that cause ringworm, including:

  • Circular, ring-shaped scales or plaques.
  • Flat patches with a raised, round border.
  • Itchy skin.
  • Hair loss or bald spots in the affected area.

What causes ringworm?

Despite its name, a fungus causes ringworm. This type of fungus naturally lives on your skin, hair and nails. However, when their environment gets hot and damp, the fungi start growing uncontrollably. You can get this infection anytime your skin comes into contact with the ringworm fungus on someone else’s skin.

How contagious is ringworm?

Ringworm is contagious. It can live on your skin, on surfaces and in soil. The main ways ringworm spreads are:

  • Skin-to-skin contact with a person who has ringworm.
  • Contact with an infected dog, cat or animal (livestock or pets).
  • Contact with a contaminated surface, such as a locker room floor or sweaty gym clothes.
  • Sharing objects with an infected person or animal such as a brush, towel or bedding.
  • Contaminated soil.

Diagnosis and Tests

How is ringworm diagnosed?

Your healthcare provider can diagnose ringworm by looking at your skin and assessing your symptoms. They may scrape the area to look at the skin cells under a microscope, too. Examining the scales typically confirms ringworm.

Management and Treatment

How is ringworm treated?

Several nonprescription (over-the-counter) and prescription antifungal medications are available to treat ringworm. Antifungals come in various forms like creams, gels or powders. Your healthcare provider can treat more widespread ringworm with oral antifungal medication.

Antifungal creams and powders

Over-the-counter (OTC) antifungal creams, gels or powders typically work well. OTC products include:

If your symptoms get worse or don’t clear after two weeks, you may need an oral prescription medication from your healthcare provider.

Oral medication

Your healthcare provider may write you a prescription for oral antifungal medication if you have ringworm on your scalp or on many parts of your body. Most medications are prescribed for between one and three months. Oral antifungal medications include:

Antifungal shampoo

Antifungal shampoo, such as ketoconazole shampoo (Nizoral A-D®), may stop scalp ringworm from spreading. It won’t cure it, but it may help contain the infection. You also need to take a prescribed oral antifungal medication. Unaffected family members may benefit from using the shampoo as well.

Home remedies for ringworm

Home remedies like apple cider vinegar or tea tree have little to no benefit. Apple cider vinegar may cause open sores or inflammation. Tea tree oil has antifungal and antimicrobial properties but its effects aren’t well-known.

Your home may require treatment as well. The ringworm fungus can live on surfaces for months. Disinfectant sprays like Lysol® or bleach can remove the fungus. Wash clothes, sheets and towels in hot water and detergent to prevent ringworm from spreading.

Steroid creams

Corticosteroid creams may help reduce inflammation, but they shouldn’t be used to treat ringworm. In fact, they may worsen the infection.

What cures ringworm?

Mild cases of ringworm clear up within a few weeks. More serious infections may require treatment for six to 12 weeks.

Some other things you can do to promote healing:

  • Keep the affected area clean and dry.
  • Apply antifungal lotions, creams or ointments for the entire treatment period.
  • Avoid touching the area and wash your hands before touching other areas of your body.

Does ringworm go away by itself?

Although ringworm can go away by itself, it’s not common. While ringworm is present on your skin, you’re still contagious to others.

Outlook / Prognosis

Can ringworm come back?

Yes, ringworm can come back. Ringworm will go away if you treat it appropriately. Follow your healthcare provider’s treatment plan until the infection clears completely. If you stop treatment or treatment ends too soon, the infection can come back.

What are the complications of ringworm?

If you suspect you or your child has ringworm, don’t use anti-itch creams containing corticosteroids. These creams weaken your skin’s defenses. They can allow the infection to spread and cover larger sections of skin. On rare occasions, the ringworm fungus goes deeper into your skin, making it even harder to treat.

Scalp ringworm can lead to a painful inflammation called kerion. With kerion, you may develop crusty, pus-filled sores, often with hair loss and scarring.

Prevention

How can I prevent ringworm?

Ringworm thrives in damp, warm areas. The fungus can live on towels, clothes, sheets and household surfaces for months. Preventing ringworm involves:

  • Changing your socks and underwear daily or more frequently if they become damp or soiled.
  • Showering immediately after contact sports or exercise.
  • Wearing sandals or shower shoes at the pool and in public locker rooms and showers.
  • Drying your skin thoroughly after showering, especially between your toes.
  • Avoiding sharing towels, washcloths, sheets, clothes, combs or other personal hygiene items.
  • Washing clothes, athletic gear, sheets and towels in hot water and detergent.
  • Disinfecting surfaces with bleach or sprays like Lysol®.
  • Treating pets for ringworm, if they’re infected.
  • Washing hands thoroughly after contact with animals.

A weak immune system or living in a damp, warm climate increases your risk of a fungal infection.

Living With

When should I call the doctor?

Call your healthcare provider if the ringworm infection:

  • Appears on your scalp.
  • Looks infected (redness and swelling).
  • Occurs during pregnancy.
  • Spreads to other areas of your body.
  • Doesn’t improve after using over-the-counter antifungal medication as directed.

What questions should I ask my doctor?

You’re sure to have questions if you or your child develop ringworm. You might ask your healthcare provider:

  • How did I get ringworm?
  • How long is ringworm contagious?
  • Should I (or my child) stay home from work/school until the ringworm infection is gone?
  • What steps can I take to prevent ringworm from spreading to other parts of my body?
  • What steps can I take to prevent ringworm from spreading to other people?
  • What’s the best treatment for ringworm?
  • Should I avoid any medications or treatments?
  • What steps can I take to keep from getting ringworm again?
  • How can I tell if my pet has ringworm?
  • Should I look out for signs of complications?

Additional Common Questions

Is ringworm an actual worm?

No, ringworm isn’t a worm. It’s a fungal infection that gets its name from its ring-like border.

How does ringworm affect pregnancy?

Ringworm fungus won’t affect your pregnancy. Still, you should check with your healthcare provider before using over-the-counter antifungal creams or powders. Oral antifungal medications appear to be safe to take during pregnancy. Your pregnancy care provider can discuss potential risks and benefits with you.

Can you get ringworm from dogs or cats?

Yes, you can get ringworm from dogs, cats and other animals like cows, goats or horses. You can protect yourself by always washing your hands after playing with or petting animals. If your pet has ringworm, disinfect your pet’s bedding and take extra care to clean surfaces your pet has visited in your home.

How is ringworm different from eczema?

Eczema and many other skin conditions can resemble ringworm. Both ringworm and eczema cause itchy, red skin. Unlike ringworm, eczema isn’t contagious and doesn’t spread from one area to another on your body. Ringworm has a unique, ring-like appearance. Contact a healthcare provider for an appropriate diagnosis.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

Ringworm can be unpleasant, but antifungal medications will help you get rid of the fungus that causes ringworm. The treatment may take time, but it’s important to follow your healthcare provider’s treatment plan for as long as recommended. Ending treatment too soon can cause ringworm to return and make the infection harder to treat. Ask your provider about how you can keep ringworm from spreading to other parts of your body and to other people.

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We were having a small and casual party at our house celebrating Halloween. There were thirteen coming some of them in fancy dress. However, a close neighbour, who was coming with her husband, recommended a cancellation just in case I passed the fungal infection on to someone else.

Thus I have to be patient and keep putting on the cream for at least the next couple of weeks, hoping that in time I will notice the fungus going.

Finally, let me just repeat this from the article by Clevedon: ‘Ringworm is contagious and extremely common. It can affect 20% to 25% of the world’s population at any given time.’

The start of it all!

A wonderful documentary of the formation of Planet Earth.

From the website The Earth through time, I quote: The Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago. 4.6 billion is 4,600,000.000 years ago. It was formed by collisions of particles in a large cloud of material. Slowly gravity gathered together all these particles of dust and gas and formed larger clumps. These clumps continued to collide and gradually grew bigger and bigger eventually forming the Earth. The earth at this time was very different to how we know it today.

I left a comment on the site: What a wonderful story.. So many comments in support of this fantastic film, and rightly so.

Reply

Prehistory

We all live in the Quantenary period. From Wikipedia I quote a small piece:

It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.6 million years ago to the present.

I don’t know about you but 2.6 million years ago (Ma) seems like a very long time. But then the prior period was the Neogene that went from 2.6 Ma to 23 Ma.

But if one wants to think ‘old’ then try the Ordovician period:

The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period 486.85 Ma (million years ago) to the start of the Silurian Period 443.1 Ma.

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Just to put us humans into context, human evolution is very much shorter. I have it from six million years onwards. But here are two videos, courtesy of YouTube. The first one is a short one:

Scientists use fossils to reconstruct the evolutionary history of hominins—the group that includes modern humans, our immediate ancestors, and other extinct relatives. Today, our closest living relatives are chimpanzees, but extinct hominins are even closer. Where and when did they live? What can we learn about their lives? Why did they go extinct? Scientists look to fossils for clues.

 The second video is a 54-minute one from PBS.

They have both been watched thousands of times.

Now on to today’s post.

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Giant ground sloths’ fossilized teeth reveal their unique roles in the prehistoric ecosystem

Harlan’s ground sloth fossil skeleton excavated and displayed at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Larisa DeSantis

Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Vanderbilt University and Aditya Reddy Kurre, University of Pennsylvania

animal hanging from a branch looks upside down at the camera
A two-toed sloth at the Nashville Zoo. Larisa R. G. DeSantis

Imagine a sloth. You probably picture a medium-size, tree-dwelling creature hanging from a branch. Today’s sloths – commonly featured on children’s backpacks, stationery and lunch boxes – are slow-moving creatures, living inconspicuously in Central American and South American rainforests.

But their gigantic Pleistocene ancestors that inhabited the Americas as far back as 35 million years ago were nothing like the sleepy tree huggers we know today. Giant ground sloths – some weighing thousands of pounds and standing taller than a single-story building – played vital and diverse roles in shaping ecosystems across the Americas, roles that vanished with their loss at the end of the Pleistocene.

In our new study, published in the journal Biology Letters, we aimed to reconstruct the diets of two species of giant ground sloths that lived side by side in what’s now Southern California. We analyzed remains recovered from the La Brea Tar Pits of what are colloquially termed the Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) and Harlan’s ground sloth (Paramylodon harlani). Our work sheds light on the lives of these fascinating creatures and the consequences their extinction in Southern California 13,700 years ago has had on ecosystems.

Dentin dental challenges

Studying the diets of extinct animals often feels like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with only a portion of the puzzle pieces. Stable isotope analyses have revolutionized how paleoecologists reconstruct the diets of many ancient organisms. By measuring the relative ratios of light and heavy carbon isotopes in tooth enamel, we can figure out what kinds of foods an animal ate – for instance, grasses versus trees or shrubs.

dental drill in hands near an animal jawbone
Drilling teeth provides a sample for stable isotope analyses. Aditya Kurre

But the teeth of giant ground sloths lack enamel, the highly inorganic and hard outer layer on most animal teeth – including our own. Instead, sloth teeth are made primarily of dentin, a more porous and organic-rich tissue that readily changes its chemical composition with fossilization.

Stable isotope analyses are less dependable in sloths because dentin’s chemical composition can be altered postmortem, skewing the isotopic signatures.

Another technique researchers use to glean information about an animal’s diet relies on analyzing the microscopic wear patterns on its teeth. Dental microwear texture analysis can infer whether an animal mostly ate tough foods such as leaves and grass or hard foods such as seeds and fruit pits. This technique is also tricky when it comes to sloths’ fossilized teeth because signs of wear may be preserved differently in the softer dentin than in harder enamel.

Prior to studying fossil sloths, we vetted dental microwear methods in modern xenarthrans, a group of animals that includes sloths, armadillos and anteaters. This study demonstrated that dentin microwear can reveal dietary differences between leaf-eating sloths and insect-consuming armadillos, giving us confidence that these tools could reveal dietary information from ground sloth fossils.

Distinct dietary niches revealed

Previous research suggested that giant ground sloths were either grass-eating grazers or leaf-eating browsers, based on the size and shape of their teeth. However, more direct measures of diet – such as stable isotopes or dental microwear – were often lacking.

Our new analyses revealed contrasting dental wear signatures between the two co-occurring ground sloth species. The Harlan’s ground sloth, the larger of the two, had microwear patterns dominated by deep pitlike textures. This kind of wear is indicative of chewing hard, mechanically challenging foods such as tubers, seeds, fungi and fruit pits. Our new evidence aligns with skeletal adaptations that suggest powerful digging abilities, consistent with foraging foods both above and below ground.

diagram of sloth profiles, tooth outline and magnified surface of two bits of the teeth
The fossil teeth of the Harlan’s ground sloth typically showed deeper pitlike textures, bottom, while the Shasta ground sloth teeth had shallower wear patterns, top. DeSantis and Kurre, Biology Letters 2025

In contrast, the Shasta ground sloth exhibited dental microwear textures more akin to those in leaf-eating and woody plant-eating herbivores. This pattern corroborates previous studies of its fossilized dung, demonstrating a diet rich in desert plants such as yucca, agave and saltbush.

Next we compared the sloths’ microwear textures to those of ungulates such as camels, horses and bison that lived in the same region of Southern California. We confirmed that neither sloth species’ dietary behavior overlapped fully with other herbivores. Giant ground sloths didn’t perform the same ecological functions as the other herbivores that shared their landscape. Instead, both ground sloths partitioned their niches and played complementary ecological roles.

Extinctions brought ecological loss

The Harlan’s ground sloth was a megafaunal ecosystem engineer. It excavated soil and foraged underground, thereby affecting soil structure and nutrient cycling, even dispersing seed and fungal spores over wide areas. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some anachronistic fruits – such as the weird, bumpy-textured and softball-size Osage orange – were dispersed by ancient megafauna such as giant ground sloths. When the Pleistocene megafauna went extinct, the loss contributed to the regional restriction of these plants, since no one was around to spread their seeds.

The broader consequence is clear: Megafaunal extinctions erased critical ecosystem engineers, triggering cascading ecological changes that continue to affect habitat resilience today. Our results resonate with growing evidence that preserving today’s living large herbivores and understanding the diversity of their ecological niches is crucial for conserving functional ecosystems.

Studying the teeth of lost giant ground sloths has illuminated not only their diets but also the enduring ecological legacies of their extinction. Today’s sloths, though charming, only hint at the profound environmental influence of their prehistoric relatives – giants that shaped landscapes in ways we are only beginning to appreciate.

Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University and Aditya Reddy Kurre, Dental Student, University of Pennsylvania

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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I am going to finish with a link, and a small extract, from a Wikipedia article on the evolution of Homo sapiens

The timeline of human evolution outlines the major events in the evolutionary lineage of the modern human species, Homo sapiens, throughout the history of life, beginning some 4 billion years ago down to recent evolution within H. sapiens during and since the Last Glacial Period.

The evolution of the human brain

This is a deeply fascinating history.

There are many articles on this subject and it is one that I will return to from time to time.

But for today I want to just show a seven-minute video from YouTube.

Amazing!

More about Jane Goodall

An article published by The Conversation is offered today.

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Jane Goodall, the gentle disrupter whose research on chimpanzees redefined what it meant to be human

Jane Goodall appears on stage at 92NY in New York on Oct. 1, 2023.
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Mireya Mayor, Florida International University

Anyone proposing to offer a master class on changing the world for the better, without becoming negative, cynical, angry or narrow-minded in the process, could model their advice on the life and work of pioneering animal behavior scholar Jane Goodall.

Goodall’s life journey stretches from marveling at the somewhat unremarkable creatures – though she would never call them that – in her English backyard as a wide-eyed little girl in the 1930s to challenging the very definition of what it means to be human through her research on chimpanzees in Tanzania. From there, she went on to become a global icon and a United Nations Messenger of Peace.

Until her death on Oct. 1, 2025 at age 91, Goodall retained a charm, open-mindedness, optimism and wide-eyed wonder that are more typical of children. I know this because I have been fortunate to spend time with her and to share insights from my own scientific career. To the public, she was a world-renowned scientist and icon. To me, she was Jane – my inspiring mentor and friend.

Despite the massive changes Goodall wrought in the world of science, upending the study of animal behavior, she was always cheerful, encouraging and inspiring. I think of her as a gentle disrupter. One of her greatest gifts was her ability to make everyone, at any age, feel that they have the power to change the world. https://www.youtube.com/embed/rcL4jnGTL1U?wmode=transparent&start=0 Jane Goodall documented that chimpanzees not only used tools but make them – an insight that altered thinking about animals and humans.

Discovering tool use in animals

In her pioneering studies in the lush rainforest of Tanzania’s Gombe Stream Game Reserve, now a national park, Goodall noted that the most successful chimp leaders were gentle, caring and familial. Males that tried to rule by asserting their dominance through violence, tyranny and threat did not last.

I also am a primatologist, and Goodall’s groundbreaking observations of chimpanzees at Gombe were part of my preliminary studies. She famously recorded chimps taking long pieces of grass and inserting them into termite nests to “fish” for the insects to eat, something no one else had previously observed.

It was the first time an animal had been seen using a tool, a discovery that altered how scientists differentiated between humanity and the rest of the animal kingdom.

Renowned anthropologist Louis Leakey chose Goodall to do this work precisely because she was not formally trained. When she turned up in Leakey’s office in Tanzania in 1957, at age 23, Leakey initially hired her as his secretary, but he soon spotted her potential and encouraged her to study chimpanzees. Leakey wanted someone with a completely open mind, something he believed most scientists lost over the course of their formal training.

Because chimps are humans’ closest living relatives, Leakey hoped that understanding the animals would provide insights into early humans. In a predominantly male field, he also thought a woman would be more patient and insightful than a male observer. He wasn’t wrong.

Six months in, when Goodall wrote up her observations of chimps using tools, Leakey wrote, “Now we must redefine tool, redefine Man, or accept chimpanzees as human.”

Goodall spoke of animals as having emotions and cultures, and in the case of chimps, communities that were almost tribal. She also named the chimps she observed, an unheard-of practice at the time, garnering ridicule from scientists who had traditionally numbered their research subjects.

One of her most remarkable observations became known as the Gombe Chimp War. It was a four-year-long conflict in which eight adult males from one community killed all six males of another community, taking over their territory, only to lose it to another, bigger community with even more males.

Confidence in her path

Goodall was persuasive, powerful and determined, and she often advised me not to succumb to people’s criticisms. Her path to groundbreaking discoveries did not involve stepping on people or elbowing competitors aside.

Rather, her journey to Africa was motivated by her wonder, her love of animals and a powerful imagination. As a little girl, she was entranced by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 story “Tarzan of the Apes,” and she loved to joke that Tarzan married the wrong Jane.

When I was a 23-year-old former NFL cheerleader, with no scientific background at that time, and looked at Goodall’s work, I imagined that I, too, could be like her. In large part because of her, I became a primatologist, co-discovered a new species of lemur in Madagascar and have had an amazing life and career, in science and on TV, as a National Geographic explorer.
When it came time to write my own story, I asked Goodall to contribute the introduction. She wrote:

“Mireya Mayor reminds me a little of myself. Like me she loved being with animals when she was a child. And like me she followed her dream until it became a reality.”

In a 2023 interview, Jane Goodall answers TV host Jimmy Kimmel’s questions about chimpanzee behavior.

Storyteller and teacher

Goodall was an incredible storyteller and saw it as the most successful way to help people understand the true nature of animals. With compelling imagery, she shared extraordinary stories about the intelligence of animals, from apes and dolphins to rats and birds, and, of course, the octopus. She inspired me to become a wildlife correspondent for National Geographic so that I could share the stories and plights of endangered animals around the world.

Goodall inspired and advised world leaders, celebrities, scientists and conservationists. She also touched the lives of millions of children.

Two women face each other, smiling and holding a book
Jane Goodall and primatologist Mireya Mayor with Mayor’s book ‘Just Wild Enough,’ a memoir aimed at young readers. Mireya Mayor, CC BY-ND

Through the Jane Goodall Institute, which works to engage people around the world in conservation, she launched Roots & Shoots, a global youth program that operates in more than 60 countries. The program teaches children about connections between people, animals and the environment, and ways to engage locally to help all three.

Along with Goodall’s warmth, friendship and wonderful stories, I treasure this comment from her: “The greatest danger to our future is our apathy. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.”

It’s a radical notion from a one-of-a-kind scientist.

This article has been updated to add the date of Goodall’s death.

Mireya Mayor, Director of Exploration and Science Communication, Florida International University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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That comment by Jane that was treasured by Mireya is so important. “The greatest danger to our future is our apathy. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.”

In memory of Jane Goodall

May she be remembered for a very long time!

There is much information on the web and elsewhere so all I want to do is to share a video of Jane.

For persons who would want to know more about Jane’s life there is an excellent piece on Wikipedia. Here it is!

Identifying tracks.

Living in a rural area has a bonus!

Every morning I go outside to feed the wild deer, as I have said before. However this morning, the 1st October, the rain had softened the ground and I saw animal footprints close to where I put out the COB for the deer.

Here’s a photograph albeit it is almost impossible to distinguish.

Anyway, to the post.

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How to identify animal tracks, burrows and other signs of wildlife in your neighborhood

A paw print in baked mud at Joshua Tree National Park, likely from a coyote. Brad Sutton/National Park Service

Steven Sullivan, Miami University

Your neighborhood is home to all sorts of amazing animals, from racoons, squirrels and skunks to birds, bugs and snails. Even if you don’t see them, most of these creatures are leaving evidence of their activities all around you.

Paw prints in different shapes and sizes are clues to the visitors who pass through. The shapes of tunnels and mounds in your yard carry the mark of their builders.

Even the stuff animals leave behind, whether poop or skeletons, tells you something about the wilder side of the neighborhood.

A gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinenensis), nose down in a small hole that it's excavating in the dirt.
Tree squirrels can excavate small holes all over a yard to hide seeds and nuts or when searching for them. Ground squirrels also create burrows. Snowmanradio/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

I’m a zoologist and director of the Hefner Museum of Natural History at Miami University of Ohio, where we work with all kinds of wildlife specimens. With a little practice, you’ll soon notice a lot more evidence of your neighborhood friends when you step outside.

What makes those animal tracks?

You can learn a lot from a nice, crisp paw print.

The dog family, including coyotes and foxes, can be differentiated from the cat family by the shape of their palm pads — triangular for dogs, two lobes at the peak for cats.

Images of footprints of canid and felid.
Canid tracks, left, are roughly rectangular, with the tips of the middle two toes aligned. They often, but don’t always, show claw marks. The pad has an indentation on the back and a projection on the front, with the space between the pad and the toes forming an X. Felid tracks, right, are roughly circular, with the tip of one toe extending slightly farther than all other toes. They seldom show claw marks. The pad has three lobes on the back and an indentation on the front, with the space between the pad and toes forming a curve. Steven Sullivan, CC BY-NC-ND

Both opossums and raccoons leave prints that look like those of a tiny human, but the opossum thumb is held at nearly right angles to the rest of the fingers.

Illustrations of two tracks. The opposable thumb is evident with the oppossum track.
Opossum, left, and raccoon tracks. Like humans, opossums have opposable thumbs. Steven Sullivan

Not all prints are so clear, however.

Invasive rats and native squirrels have prints that often look pretty similar to each other. Water erosion of a skunk print left in mud might connect the toe tips to the palm, making it look more like a raccoon. And prints left in winter slush by the smallest dog in the neighborhood can grow through freezing and thawing to proportions that make people wonder whether wolves have returned to their former haunts.

There are good reference books where you can learn more about track analysis, and it can be fun to go down the rabbit hole of collecting and studying prints.

Illustrations of animal tracks by typical size, pairs and track pattern.
Examples of many types of animal tracks found in the Northeast and other parts of North America. Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife

Clues from holes and other animal excavations

Often, it’s easiest to figure out which animal left a paw print by correlating its tracks with other evidence.

If what look like squirrel prints lead to a hole in the ground, then it wasn’t a tree squirrel. Stuff a handful of leaves or newspaper in the hole. If it gets pushed out during the day, the hole is probably inhabited by a ground squirrel, such as a chipmunk. But if the plug is pushed out at night, you probably have a rat.

I once noticed a faint trail in the soil near my porch. Using the hole-stuffing method, I determined that something spent most days under the wooden stairs that people constantly, and often loudly, traversed. When I was pretty sure my newly discovered neighbor was home, I used a mirror and flashlight to investigate the opening without exposing myself to a protective resident. Sure enough, there was a cute little skunk staring back at me. https://www.youtube.com/embed/6fCFy29aHbY?wmode=transparent&start=0 Animals that excavate in search of food or to create shelter leave different types of holes. Gardening Latest.

Skunks, and many other local animals, often leave obvious excavations in lawns.

Lawns are biological deserts where few species can live, but those that can survive there often reach high numbers. Lawn grubs – the milk-white, C-shaped caterpillars of a few beetle species – particularly love the lack of competition found in a carpet of grass. Polka dots of dead thatch are one sign of these grubs, but if you have a biodiverse neighborhood, many animals will consume this high-calorie treat before you ever notice them.

Skunks and raccoons will dig up each grub individually, leaving a small hole that healthy grass can refill quickly. Moles – fist-size insectivores more closely related to bats than rodents – live underground where they virtually swim through soil, leaving slightly raised trails visible in mowed lawns. In spring and fall, moles make volcano-shaped mounds with no visible opening.

Three small skulls
Left to right, mole, vole and gopher skulls show clear differences: Moles are insectivores with lots of pointy teeth; voles are rodents the size of mice, and gophers are also rodents but bigger. Steven Sullivan

Gophers, on the other hand, are herbivorous rodents – they eat plants rather than grubs. They also leave tunnels and mounds, but the tunnels are usually very visible and their mounds are crescent-shaped, often with a visible opening.

Voles, not to be confused with moles, are also herbivorous rodents. They’re mouse-size, with tiny, furry ears and short tails. They may dig small holes, but more obviously they leave thatch-lined runways on the surface.

Illustration of a mole and a gopher under ground
Gophers, top – long-toothed, long-nailed rodents – tunnel and gnaw their way through soil and roots, creating C-shaped mounds that open on the inside of the C. The opening may be big enough for a golf ball or plugged with soil. Moles, bottom – insectivorous, smooth-furred, nearly eyeless and earless – swim through the soil with paddle-shaped forelimbs, occasionally making a volcano-shaped mound with no obvious opening. Steven Sullivan

Even the cicadas singing loudly in the trees in my yard this summer left pinky-size holes in the ground as they emerged 17 years after hatching. The boom-bust cycle of cicadas has brought more moles, squirrels and birds to my neighborhood this year to munch on the nutrient-rich insects.

The evidence left behind, including poop

Where there is food, there is poop. Though the subject of feces is taboo among polite human society, it’s a fundamental, though understudied, communication method for many mammals.

Think about a dog marking its territory. Sometimes it seems they can’t go for more than a few feet before reading the pee-mail left on every prominent post. Urine, feces and gland oil act like social media posts, conveying each individual’s identity, health, height and reproductive status, the availability and quality of prey, and the extent of their territory. https://www.youtube.com/embed/-3JU_y-uI5E?wmode=transparent&start=0 Different types of animal feces from around the world.

Though most of the smell communication is lost on humans, the contents of the feces can tell a lot about the inhabitants of a neighborhood.

Domestic dog poop is usually just a big, homogeneous lump because they eat processed food, but wild canid feces is often full of bones and fur. Coyote feces is usually lumpy and larger than fox feces, which has pointy ends. Once it has weathered a bit, it’s easy to break open to find identifiable remains such as vole, rat and rabbit. Use care when inspecting feces, since it may transmit parasites.

Depending on time of year, the contents and shape of feces can vary considerably. Raccoon feces lacks the pointy ends and is often filled with seeds, but wild canids may eat lots of seeds, too. Deer feces is usually small, fibrous pellets, but those pellets may form clumps.

If you are lucky, you might find a pellet of bone and fur regurgitated by an owl near the base of a tree. Carefully break it apart and there’s a good chance you’ll find the skull of a vole or rat.

A tiny skull and fur found in an owl pellet
The items inside an owl pellet can tell you something about the smaller animals in the neighborhood, as well as the owls. Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren, CC BY

Look closely at living and dead trees to find evidence of even smaller neighbors. A fine, uniform, granular sawdust pushed from tiny holes in bark can indicate beetle larvae feces, or “frass.” A large mass of frass at the base of a tree likely indicates carpenter ants.

In contrast to dusty frass, aphids slurp sap so rich in sugar that their feces coats surrounding surfaces in, essentially, maple syrup.

All of these insects attract many species of birds. Woodpeckers are hard to miss as they loudly hammer holes into trees. But don’t blame them for tree decline – they eat the things that are killing the tree.

Look for dead trees

Dead trees are a key feature of wildlife habitat, like a bus stop, and host different occupants throughout the day and over the year.

A woodpecker with a read head on the side of a tree with dozens of holes that have acorns stuffed into them.
Dead and dying trees are useful for many animals, from woodpeckers that excavate holes to eagles, crows and other birds that build nests in them. This acorn woodpecker creates holes to store acorns. Eric Phelps via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

For example, a tree buzzing with cicadas in my yard this summer is quite healthy but has one big, dead branch that has been an important way station for wildlife over the past 20 years.

A decayed cavity at the base of the branch is polished smooth with the activity of generations of squirrels, while the tip is a favorite perch of all the neighborhood birds. By night, it is visited by a great horned owl, who, I somewhat sadly note, may be scanning for my porch skunk.

Decomposers: The neighborhood cleaning crew

This brings us to the decomposers. Animal carcasses are evidence of the neighborhood’s wild population, too, but they typically don’t last long. Insects make quick work of dead animals, often consuming the soft parts of a carcass before it is even noticed by humans.

Long after most activity around the carcass has ceased, exoskeletons left behind by the decomposers will remain in the soil. Dermestids, including the carpet beetles often found in our homes, leave fuzzy larval exoskeletons. Fly pupae look like brown pills. And sometimes adult carrion beetles keep a home underneath partially buried bones for years.

A box with different types of beetles on display
A collection of beetles found around Austin, Texas. Beetles are common decomposers. VPaleontologist/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Two beetles and several flies feeding.
Carrion beetles and flies feeding. Benoit Brummer/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

Earthworms, feasting on nutrient-soaked soil, may leave a squirt of mud like a string of hot glue, while ants will leave piles of uniformly sorted sand. Snails will visit carcasses periodically to eat the bones, leaving trails that sparkle like thin, impossibly long ribbons in the morning sun.

From snails to skunks, squirrels to cicadas, most of our neighbors are quiet and seldom interact with us, but they play important roles in the world.

As we get to know them better, through their digging, eating and decomposing, and sometimes by watching them in action, we can better understand the animals that make our own lives possible and, maybe, understand ourselves a little better, too.

Steven Sullivan, Director of the Hefner Museum of Natural History, Miami University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Another super article from The Conversation.

Steven Sullivan in that last paragraph poses an interesting question “….. and sometimes by watching them in action, we can better understand the animals that make our own lives possible and, maybe, understand ourselves a little better, too.“

I wish, I wish, I wish!

Yet more about Mindfulness

I am returning to this subject.

Simply because it is so important to us humans. For the world we live in has changed, and changed drastically. Now we are ‘wired up’ and that means less time to do nothing.

In 2010 I presented a book review Mindfulness by Ellen Janger.

Now I want to share an article presented by The Conversation.

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Mindfulness won’t burn calories, but it might help you stick with your health goals

Meditation exists on a spectrum, from mindful moments and bursts of mindfulness to building up to a formal meditative practice. d3sign/Moment via Getty Images

Masha Remskar, Arizona State University

Most people know roughly what kind of lifestyle they should be living to stay healthy.

Think regular exercise, a balanced diet and sufficient sleep. Yet, despite all the hacks, trackers and motivational quotes, many of us still struggle to stick with our health goals.

Meanwhile, people worldwide are experiencing more lifestyle-associated chronic disease than ever before.

But what if the missing piece in your health journey wasn’t more discipline – but more stillness?

Research shows that mindfulness meditation can help facilitate this pursuit of health goals through stillness, and that getting started is easier than you might think – no Buddhist monk robes or silent retreats required.

Given how ubiquitous and accessible mindfulness resources are these days, I have been surprised to see mindfulness discussed and studied only as a mental health tool, stopping short of exploring its usefulness for a whole range of lifestyle choices.

I am a psychologist and behavioral scientist researching ways to help people live healthier lives, especially by moving more and regulating stress more efficiently.

My team’s work and that of other researchers suggests that mindfulness could play a pivotal role in paving the way for a healthier society, one mindful breath at a time.

Mindfulness unpacked

Mindfulness has become a buzzword of late, with initiatives now present in schools, boardrooms and even among first responders. But what is it, really?

Mindfulness refers to the practice or instance of paying careful attention to one’s present-moment experience – such as their thoughts, breath, bodily sensations and the environment – and doing so nonjudgmentally. Its origins are in Buddhist traditions, where it plays a crucial role in connecting communities and promoting selflessness.

Over the past 50 years, however, mindfulness-based practice has been Westernized into structured therapeutic programs and stress-management tools, which have been widely studied for their benefits to mental and physical health.

Research has shown that mindfulness offers wide-ranging benefits to the mind, the body and productivity.

Mindfulness-based programs, both in person and digitally delivered, can effectively treat depression and anxiety, protect from burnout, improve sleep and reduce pain.

The impacts extend beyond subjective experience too. Studies find that experienced meditators – that is, people who have been meditating for at least one year – have lower markers of inflammation, which means that their bodies are better able to fight off infections and regulate stress. They also showed improved cognitive abilities and even altered brain structure.

But I find the potential for mindfulness to support a healthy lifestyle most exciting of all.

A senior couple sitting on the beach, pressing their feet together as the woman pulls the man's arms forward in a stretch.
Mindfulness meditation may enhance the psychological skills needed to follow through on exercise and other health habits. Maria Korneeva/Moment via Getty Images

How can mindfulness help you build healthy habits?

My team’s research suggests that mindfulness equips people with the psychological skills required to successfully change behavior. Knowing what to do to achieve healthy habits is rarely what stands in people’s way. But knowing how to stay motivated and keep showing up in the face of everyday obstacles such as lack of time, illness or competing priorities is the most common reason people fall off the wagon – and therefore need the most support. This is where mindfulness comes in.

Multiple studies have found that people who meditate regularly for at least two months become more inherently motivated to look after their health, which is a hallmark of those who adhere to a balanced diet and exercise regularly.

A 2024 study with over 1,200 participants that I led found more positive attitudes toward healthy habits and stronger intentions to put them into practice in meditators who practiced mindfulness for 10 minutes daily alongside a mobile app, compared with nonmeditators. This may happen because mindfulness encourages self-reflection and helps people feel more in tune with their bodies, making it easier to remember why being healthier is important to us.

Another key way mindfulness helps keep momentum with healthy habits is by restructuring one’s response to pain, discomfort and failure. This is not to say that meditators feel no pain, nor that pain during exercise is encouraged – it is not!

Mild discomfort, however, is a very common experience of novice exercisers. For example, you may feel out of breath or muscle fatigue when initially taking up a new activity, which is when people are most likely to give up. Mindfulness teaches you to notice these sensations but see them as transient and with minimal judgment, making them less disruptive to habit-building.

Putting mindfulness into practice

A classic mindfulness exercise includes observing the breath and counting inhales up to 10 at a time. This is surprisingly difficult to do without getting distracted, and a core part of the exercise is noticing the distraction and returning to the counting. In other words, mindfulness involves the practice of failure in small, inconsequential ways, making real-world perceived failure – such as a missed exercise session or a one-off indulgent meal – feel more manageable. This strengthens your ability to stay consistent in pursuit of health goals.

Finally, paying mindful attention to our bodies and the environment makes us more observant, resulting in a more varied and enjoyable exercising or eating experience. Participants in another study we conducted reported noticing the seasons changing, a greater connection to their surroundings and being better able to detect their own progress when exercising mindfully. This made them more likely to keep going in their habits.

Luckily, there are plenty of tools available to get started with mindfulness practice these days, many of them free. Mobile applications, such as Headspace or Calm, are popular and effective starting points, providing audio-guided sessions to follow along. Some are as short as five minutes. Research suggests that doing a mindfulness session first thing in the morning is the easiest to maintain, and after a month or so you may start to see the skills from your meditative practice reverberating beyond the sessions themselves.

Based on our research on mindfulness and exercise, I collaborated with the nonprofit Medito Foundation to create the first mindfulness program dedicated to moving more. When we tested the program in a research study, participants who meditated alongside these sessions for one month reported doing much more exercise than before the study and having stronger intentions to keep moving compared with participants who did not meditate. Increasingly, the mobile applications mentioned above are offering mindful movement meditations too.

If the idea of a seated practice does not sound appealing, you can instead choose an activity to dedicate your full attention to. This can be your next walk outdoors, where you notice as much about your experience and surroundings as possible. Feeling your feet on the ground and the sensations on your skin are a great place to start.

For people with even less time available, short bursts of mindfulness can be incorporated into even the busiest of routines. Try taking a few mindful, nondistracted breaths while your coffee is brewing, during a restroom break or while riding the elevator. It may just be the grounding moment you need to feel and perform better for the rest of the day.

Masha Remskar, Psychologist and Postdoctoral Researcher in Behavioral Science, Arizona State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Moments of rest are essential, grounding moments as written in the article. The article is great and has great motivation to abide by the recommendations.

Please read carefully the article and change your ways.

Looking for No Man’s Land

Looking closely at our planet!

An amazing radio programme from the BBC.

Here is the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002jscf/episodes/player

More information: http://www.parkrangerdoug.com/cave-formations

The series, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, is whether there is any spot, or place, that has not been subject to man’s effects. The series consist of five fifteen-minute programmes that were broadcast last Monday to Friday.

They are still available on BBC Sounds and if you can please listen to them.

Technology, and Scamming

The title says it all!

We live in a world that is rapidly becoming more and more digital. But we also live in a world where the criminals are becoming better at carrying out their crimes. So a recent article in The Conversation seemed appropriate to republish.

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Scams and frauds: Here are the tactics criminals use on you in the age of AI and cryptocurrencies

Scammers often direct victims to convert cash to untraceable cryptocurrency and send it to them. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Rahul Telang, Carnegie Mellon University

Scams are nothing new – fraud has existed as long as human greed. What changes are the tools.

Scammers thrive on exploiting vulnerable, uninformed users, and they adapt to whatever technologies or trends dominate the moment. In 2025, that means AI, cryptocurrencies and stolen personal data are their weapons of choice.

And, as always, the duty, fear and hope of their targets provide openings. Today, duty often means following instructions from bosses or co-workers, who scammers can impersonate. Fear is that a loved one, who scammers also can impersonate, is in danger. And hope is often for an investment scheme or job opportunity to pay off.

AI-powered scams and deepfakes

Artificial intelligence is no longer niche – it’s cheap, accessible and effective. While businesses use AI for advertising and customer support, scammers exploit the same tools to mimic reality, with disturbing precision.

Deepfake scams use high-tech tools and old-fashioned emotional manipulation.

Criminals are using AI-generated audio or video to impersonate CEOs, managers or even family members in distress. Employees have been tricked into transferring money or leaking sensitive data. Over 105,000 such deepfake attacks were recorded in the U.S. in 2024, costing more than US$200 million in the first quarter of 2025 alone. Victims often cannot distinguish synthetic voices or faces from real ones.

Fraudsters are also using emotional manipulation. The scammers make phone calls or send convincing AI-written texts posing as relatives or friends in distress. Elderly victims in particular fall prey when they believe a grandchild or other family member is in urgent trouble. The Federal Trade Commission has outlined how scammers use fake emergencies to pose as relatives.

Cryptocurrency scams

Crypto remains the Wild West of finance — fast, unregulated and ripe for exploitation.

Pump-and-dump scammers artificially inflate the price of a cryptocurrency through hype on social media to lure investors with promises of huge returns – the pump – and then sell off their holdings – the dump – leaving victims with worthless tokens.

Pig butchering is a hybrid of romance scams and crypto fraud. Scammers build trust over weeks or months before persuading victims to invest in fake crypto platforms. Once the scammers have extracted enough money from the victim, they vanish.

Pig-butchering scams lure people into fake online relationships, often with devastating consequences.

Scammers also use cryptocurrencies as a means of extracting money from people in impersonation scams and other forms of fraud. For example, scammers direct victims to bitcoin ATMs to deposit large sums of cash and convert it to the untraceable cryptocurrency as payment for fictitious fines.

Phishing, smishing, tech support and jobs

Old scams don’t die; they evolve.

Phishing and smishing have been around for years. Victims are tricked into clicking links in emails or text messages, leading to malware downloads, credential theft or ransomware attacks. AI has made these lures eerily realistic, mimicking corporate tone, grammar and even video content.

Tech support scams often start with pop-ups on computer screens that warn of viruses or identity theft, urging users to call a number. Sometimes they begin with a direct cold call to the victim. Once the victim is on a call with the fake tech support, the scammers convince victims to grant remote access to their supposedly compromised computers. Once inside, scammers install malware, steal data, demand payment or all three.

Fake websites and listings are another current type of scam. Fraudulent sites impersonating universities or ticket sellers trick victims into paying for fake admissions, concerts or goods.

One example is when a website for “Southeastern Michigan University” came online and started offering details about admission. There is no such university. Eastern Michigan University filed a complaint that Southeastern Michigan University was copying its website and defrauding unsuspecting victims.

The rise of remote and gig work has opened new fraud avenues.

Victims are offered fake jobs with promises of high pay and flexible hours. In reality, scammers extract “placement fees” or harvest sensitive personal data such as Social Security numbers and bank details, which are later used for identity theft.

How you can protect yourself

Technology has changed, but the basic principles remain the same: Never click on suspicious links or download attachments from unknown senders, and enter personal information only if you are sure that the website is legitimate. Avoid using third-party apps or links. Legitimate businesses have apps or real websites of their own.

Enable two-factor authentication wherever possible. It provides security against stolen passwords. Keep software updated to patch security holes. Most software allows for automatic update or warns about applying a patch.

Remember that a legitimate business will never ask for personal information or a money transfer. Such requests are a red flag.

Relationships are a trickier matter. The state of California provides details on how people can avoid being victims of pig butchering.

Technology has supercharged age-old fraud. AI makes deception virtually indistinguishable from reality, crypto enables anonymous theft, and the remote-work era expands opportunities to trick people. The constant: Scammers prey on trust, urgency and ignorance. Awareness and skepticism remain your best defense.

Rahul Telang, Professor of Information Systems, Carnegie Mellon University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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That last paragraph really spells out how it is in the modern world. I repeat that last sentence: “Awareness and skepticism remain your best defense.“