Happy Halloween, BERGers! 🎃👻 (Or should we say, All Hallows Eve-olution?) We hope you and your pump-kin *selected* a fun disguise, and had a weekend filled with as many treats and as few tricks as possible. If anyone has any animal-related costumes to share with the group, please forward them along! Taxonomically-confused monsters may also apply. The world spins madly on, and today is particularly scary for all the wrong reasons. But we do have a few beacons of good news to share to light-up your lanterns this week! Scientists Have Made the First Large Coral Reef Discovery in 120 Years, and it is taller than the tallest skyscraper in New York City! "Marine scientists have discovered a coral tower in Australia's Great Barrier Reef that stands more than 500 meters (1,640 feet) tall, exceeding the height of the Empire State Building. It’s the first time in 120 years that a reef so large has been found in this famous ocean region, according to scientists at Schmidt Ocean Institute, who spotted and filmed the giant living structure. ... And as if this news wasn’t delightful enough, the vehicles used to find and explore the new reef appear to be named after characters from The Neverending Story. Beaman and her colleagues spotted the structure while onboard research vessel Falkor, and the team remotely operated a camera-carrying dive vehicle called SuBastian." -Excerpt from article https://www.vice.com/en/article/epddda/scientists-discover-coral-reef-talle… You can read more about this immense discovery on the Schmidt Ocean Institute's Website dedicated to the exploratory project!! https://schmidtocean.org/cruise/northern-depths-of-the-great-barrier-reef#n… Also, for your viewing pleasure, here is a video of some of the scientists collecting specimens of the reef!* (*please note that the sound is cut-out until roughly 2 minutes into the video, and then commentary can be heard): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnUVnNX7yrw<https://eur03.safelinks.prot… A Record number of baby Olive Ridley Sea Turtles hatched in one Mexican town and traveled into the Gulf of California! This year 2,250 turtle babes made the journey, compared to the regular 1,000, and this is probably due to lessened human disturbance. "This year, an Indigenous conservation group in Sonora released a record number of sea turtle hatchlings in its community on the Sea of Cortez. And it’s probably a result of the pandemic. The group Tortugueros del Desemboque has released more than 2,250 Olive Ridley sea turtle hatchlings on the Mancha Blanca beach in the tiny seaside town El Desemboque. ... In a normal year, the group might release 1,000 hatchlings, if they're lucky, said turtle conservation group coordinator Mayra Estrella Astorga, adding that in the coming weeks even more turtles may still hatch and make their way back to the sea. ... 'This year has been one of the hardest for our community. The pandemic brought sickness and death to our people and complicated the economic situation here," she said. "And that’s why we are so happy that, in the middle of this tragedy this miracle of nature happened as a result of fewer fishing boats and tourists. But also through the efforts of the community.' " Excerpt from article: https://www.azpm.org/p/home-articles-news/2020/10/28/182961-indigenous-comm… You can learn more about the mass-nesting rituals of these turtles from National Geographic, with an informative video clip found here!!: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/o/olive-ridley-sea-turt… After a Super Typhoon, and numerous landslides, one critically endangered primate species got their own rope bridge to Safety! 🌴🐒🐒🌴 "Hainan gibbons are the world’s most critically endangered primates. They are endemic to the Hainan island of China and only about 30 of them remain on the planet. In July 2014, when the Super Typhoon Rammasun hit Hainan Island, landslides created forest gaps up to 30m wide. This fragmented the habitat of the Gibbons forcing them to dangerously leap across the passage. To avoid accidental injuries or deaths, a team from Hong Kong constructed a canopy rope bridge across the damaged way in 2015." -Excerpt from article https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/how-a-rope-bridge-… The team just published their findings on the effectiveness of the bridge in Nature and noted that they never recorded or observed the bridge being used by the alpha male in the group, only by females and juveniles. The alpha male preferred to rely on his long-jump skills! Click on the link ^^above^^ to enjoy a video and explanation of the Bridge project, and click the following link for the peer-reviewed article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72641-z<https://eur03.safelin… That's all for now, BERGoblins, BERGhouls, and BERGuisers. Good fright, and Good luck this week! -Sarah and Hannah E-mail for Hannah [Professor of Psychology at Stirling; Organiser of BERG]: h.m.buchanan-smith(a)stir.ac.uk E-mail for Sarah [PhD Student at Stirling; occasional coordinator of BERG]: s.b.kraemer(a)stir.ac.uk The link to add people to the mailing list or unsubscribe to these e-mails is here: http://lists.stir.ac.uk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/berg<https://eur03.safe… ________________________________ The University achieved an overall 5 stars in the QS World University Rankings 2020 UK Sports University of the Year 2020 (Times Higher Good University Guide) The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.