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Piece Description
Scientists are sending northern flying squirrels to the gym. They want to see how much energy it takes the expert gliders of the Alaskan rainforest to get across the increasingly fragmented landscapes of America's largest National Forest, the Tongass [TONG-ghiss]. Logging has removed many of the trees that the squirrels are adapted to leap from. Now the frequent flyers often have to run to their destinations.
Broadcast History
KTOO-Juneau, AK and APRN-Anchorage, AK, 04/18/07
Transcript
Why run when you can fly? That?s the attitude that?s gotten northern flying squirrels where they are. With big flaps of skin between their furry little limbs, they can sail from tree to tree, high in the old-growth forest.
This time of year, the male squirrels are taking lovers? leaps in search of females and the trees they den in. Increasingly, the squirrels have to cross landscapes where the big trees have been cut down for their valuable timber.
Winston Smith is a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service Forestry Sciences Lab in Juneau.
18squirrel1
In managed landscapes, if these squirrels are going to move from one habitat to another, they?re going to have to run across them open spaces.
Researchers have been sending flying squirrels to the gym. They want to see how much energy it takes the high flyers to get across the changing landscapes of the Tongass National...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
Some biologists with the Alaska chapter of the Wildlife Society put special radio-tracking collars on mountain goats. Others analyze river-otter DNA in high-tech labs. And some put flying squirrels on treadmills.
John Ryan of member station K-T-O-O in Juneau has the story.
Related Website
Tanya Ott
Posted on July 10, 2007 at 06:26 AM | Permalink
Review of Flying squirrels + treadmills = Science!
Fascinating - FASCINATING! - topic and well-written copy, but this story begs for sound. Listeners don't just want to be told what the squirrels do. I want to be in the laboratory with them -- show, don't tell.
While this story lacks the nat sound that would truly make it a driveway moment, it is a solid 2 minute piece of science journalism that be used as a drop-in with a longer piece to fill out an E segment of Morning Edition or a local news magazine.