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SCIENCESaturday 30 December 2017
Starfish making comeback In South Africa,
after syndrome killed millions
bees stop elephants
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. This July 31, 2010 file photo, shows a starfish clings to a rock near
(AP) — Starfish are making Haystack Rock during low tide in Cannon Beach, Ore. from trampling trees
a comeback on the West
Coast, four years after a Associated Press HOEDSPRUIT, South Africa (AP) — The humble bee is
mysterious syndrome killed helping to keep elephants from destroying trees and
millions of them. Beginning with ochre stars hope to find,’ said Kaitlin wiping out crops in their quest for food.
From 2013 to 2014, Sea Star off Washington state, the Magliano, education coor- A project launched near South Africa’s Kruger Nation-
Wasting Syndrome hit sea disease spread, killing off dinator at the Crystal Cove al Park in 2015 has found success. An elephant’s skin is
stars from British Colum- mottled stars, leather stars, Conservancy. thick but sensitive. The animals will try to avoid a bee
bia to Mexico. The starfish sunflower stars, rainbows “We lost all of them,” she sting whenever possible, experts say. “They’re terrified
would develop lesions and and six-armed stars. said. “It’s good to see we of it coming up the trunk and then they could poten-
then disintegrate, their It hit Southern California by have some surviving and tially suffocate,” says Jess Wilmot, field researcher with
arms turning into blobs of December 2013. thriving . Maybe the next the organization Elephants Alive. Project founder Mi-
goo. “When it did (arrive), you generation will be more re- chelle Henley says beehives have proven to be “signif-
The cause is unclear but re- just started to see them silient.” icantly effective” at protecting indigenous trees from
searchers say it may be a melt everywhere,” said De- The stars aren’t out of dan- being trampled. “It’s amazing how a creature so small
virus. leske. “You’d see an arm ger yet. can actually scare away an elephant,” beekeeper
But now, the species is re- here, an arm there.” The wasting syndrome Mark Collins says. Now the project is upgrading the
bounding. Sea stars are The recovery has been never completely disap- beehives — and using them to explore commercial
being spotted in Southern promising. peared in Northern and honey production.q
California tide pools and Four adult sea stars, each Central California and it
elsewhere, the Orange about 7 to 8 inches long, has reappeared in the Sal- Wild truffle grows
County Register reported were spotted this month at ish Sea region of Washing- on Paris rooftop, in
Tuesday. Crystal Cove State Park in ton state, according to a scientific mystery
“They are coming back, Newport Beach. November report by the
big time,” Darryl Deleske, “It’s a treasure we always University of Santa Cruz.q PARIS (AP) — Urban scientists and Paris foodies are
aquarist for the Cabrillo getting excited about a bizarre discovery atop a hotel
Marine Aquarium in Los An- near the Eiffel Tower: the first-ever wild truffle growing
geles, told the newspaper. in the French capital.
“It’s a huge difference,” It’s just one 25-gram (0.9-ounce) winter truffle. But truf-
Deleske said. “A couple of fles normally sprout only in limited areas of southern Eu-
years ago, you wouldn’t rope, and are so rare that the most prized versions can
find any. I dove all the way sell for thousands of euros per kilogram.
as far as Canada, specifi- The National Museum of National History, which con-
cally looking for sea stars, firmed the discovery Friday, called it a “beautiful ex-
and found not a single ample” of environmental benefits of rooftop gardens
one.” sprouting across Paris and other cities.
Similar die-offs of starfish Urban ecology researcher Frederic Madre described
on the West Coast were on France-Info television finding the mushroom be-
reported in the 1970s, ‘80s neath a hornbeam tree at the Mercure Paris Centre
and ‘90s, but the latest hotel. This truffle was donated to science — but the
outbreak was far larger hotel is already hoping to be able to offer homegrown
and more widespread, ac- truffles to diners someday.q
cording to a report by re-
searchers at the University
of Santa Cruz.
