
Flying squirrels glow pink, thanks to fluorescence - curtis
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/01/flying-squirrels-fluorescent-secretly-glow-pink/
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jfarlow
Pretty cool!

> Anich says that Jon Martin—a forestry professor and coauthor on the
> paper—was exploring a Wisconsin forest at night, using a UV flashlight to
> scan the canopy for lichens, fungi, plants, and frogs that occasionally
> fluoresce. “One evening,” says Anich, “he heard the chirp of a flying
> squirrel at a bird feeder, pointed the flashlight at it, and was amazed to
> see pink fluorescence.”

I like that we're literally hunting for fluorescent organisms. I suspect that
kind of bioprospecting for high-value exotic genetic traits will become more
and more interesting as we move forward with our biological engineering
capabilities.

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Alex3917
I volunteer to test whether their diet (90% truffles) can cause the same issue
in humans.

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astazangasta
Obviously this is just a coincidence and not adaptive. Squirrels didn't evolve
in an environment where people are going around shining them with UV
flashlights.

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mhb
That might be obvious if they only fluoresced when illuminated with a UV
flashlight held by a person.

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astazangasta
When else are they going to encounter that much UV?

