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Science Quickly

Climbing Bears Help Plants Keep Cool

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.31.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2016

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mountain-climbing bears transport cherry tree seeds, internally at first, to cooler, higher altitudes where the trees can survive as temperatures rise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, Deadpool here. We're very excited to be joining you, but we should set the table correctly.

0:05.4

We're mostly going to make enemies with Disney and make a lot of jokes at Hughes' expense.

0:09.4

Come again.

0:10.4

So sit back, relax, while we travel to a place where grown men and women walk around in tights and act like it's not a giant cultural cry for help.

0:19.0

Because this is cinema. Shaggy! Oh my God! This is Cinema Cinema.

0:23.0

Sugar.

0:24.0

Oh my God.

0:25.0

Marvel Studios Deadpool in Wolverine in Cinemas Thursday, July 25th.

0:30.0

This is Scientific Americans 60 second science. I'm Karen Hopkins. Got a minute.

0:37.0

Picture a brave fireman carrying a pet from a burning building.

0:42.0

Now, imagine that global warming is the burning building,

0:45.0

a cherry tree is the pet, and a bear is the fireman.

0:49.0

You've now got the gist of a new study

0:51.0

that finds that cherry trees may be able to survive rising temperatures

0:55.2

thanks to mountain climbing bears that carry the cherry tree seeds to cooler climbs.

1:00.5

It's projected that over the next hundred years temperatures on Earth could rise an average of nearly 5 degrees Celsius.

1:06.0

While some animals might be able to migrate north to escape the brunt of the heat,

1:10.0

plants can't uproot themselves quite so easily. But researchers wondered

1:15.0

whether the creatures that disperse plant seeds might be able to help. So scientists spent

1:19.8

three years shifting through the droppings of Asiatic bears looking for Cherry tree seeds.

1:25.1

And they found that the bears were indeed transporting the seeds to cooler locations,

1:29.4

not by moving to higher latitudes, but higher altitudes. Seems the bears snack on the fruits that are found at the foot of the mountain in spring and then make the climb to higher elevations to enjoy young leaves and buds and flowers, particularly as the season progresses.

...

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