#Smithsonian

[snailkites]

Walnut the Crane dead at 42

White-naped Crane Walnut and her keeper/husband, Chris Crowe, in 2021. (Photo: Roshan Patel via NZCBI)

Internet sensation Walnut the Crane became ill on January 2, 2024 and passed away at age 42 at her home at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) campus in Front Royal, VA. A necropsy revealed the cause of death to be renal failure. Walnut far outlived the average life expectancy for White-naped Cranes in captivity, which is 15 years. She leaves behind her husband, zookeeper Chris Crowe, with whom she had 8 offspring, including two housed at the NZCBI: daughter Brenda, age 18, and a granddaughter, age 1.

“Walnut was a unique individual with a vivacious personality,” Crowe said. “She was always confident in expressing herself, an eager and excellent dancer, and stoic in the face of life’s challenges. I’ll always be grateful for her bond with me. Walnut’s extraordinary story has helped bring attention to her vulnerable species’ plight.” (x)

White-naped Cranes are native to Mongolia, northeast China and southeast Russia, wintering in the Korean DMZ, Japan, and China. Habitat loss to agriculture, development, and ongoing droughts are factors in their decline, leaving them classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Walnut was an important contributor to efforts to restore the species.

Edit: for those unaware, I refer to the zookeeper as her husband because Walnut was imprinted on humans, meaning she considered him her mate and performed displays and courtship for him. As a zookeeper he was responsible for artificially inseminating the bird. This and more was the source of her viral fame.

[reality-detective]

Is the Smithsonian hiding the truth about the Grand Canyon? 🤔

[culturedarm]

Todd Hido, #10552-c, 2011

[just-another-nerd-blog]

What's up MASHblr I went to the National Museum of American History last week and they had the signpost on display and I was sooo normal about it I swear

[shakespearenews]

By some accounts, Desdemona was played by Margaret Hughes, one of the first few actresses hired by the King’s Company in 1660. A cast list from a production of Othello nine years later lists Hughes as Desdemona. Despite the long gap in time, theater critic Rosamond Gilder argued in Enter the Actress, a role “belonged” to the actor or actress who first played it to the public’s satisfaction and was only given up “on retirement or under extraordinary circumstances.”

[elephantaday]

Day 922 of posting pictures of elephants.

Source: Soma Owen

[classicalartbright]

Edit after Martin Engelbrecht (Flowers) (4) (Smithsonian) (Ed. Lic.: CC BY-NC 3.0)

[helloafya]

Kyoto ware incense box in the shape of a crouching rabbit by Japanese potter Nonomura Ninsei, created during the Edo period (mid-17th century).

Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art · Freer Gallery of Art

[guy60660]

Smithsonian

[pointandshooter]

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC

photo: David Castenson

[classicalartdark]

Edit after Frederic Edwin Church (Sunset, Hudson, New York) (Smithsonian) (Ed. Lic.: CC BY-NC 3.0)

[jimhenson-themuppetmaster]

Early 1969 Blue faded Cookie Monster model

This puppet is the original Cookie Monster puppet created in 1969 for Sesame Street. He is able to feed himself because his hands are simply gloves for the performer’s hands, and he has a hole in his mouth that runs down the performer’s sleeve. The cookies that are eaten by Cookie Monster are rice crackers that are made to look like cookies because the oils from actual cookies would damage the puppet.

[thoughtportal]

Many penguin species huddle together in massive colonies, but pairs of yellow-eyed penguins go out of their way to be alone, nesting deep in New Zealand’s scrublands and forests out of sight of other penguins. When pairs reunite at the nest after one has been away fishing, they greet each other with a piercing cry that Thor Elley, an endangered avian species researcher at the University of Otago with Māori roots, likens to “a whistling tea kettle rolling down a hill.” The species’ Māori name, hoiho, roughly translates to “noise shouter.” 

Screaming and antisocial behavior may not seem like beloved traits, but these penguins are revered in Māori culture as taonga, or treasure, even gracing the country’s $5 bill. They are “protected by sacred origins,” Elley says.

But one of New Zealand’s favorite endemic birds is also one of its rarest. The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that only between 2,600 and 3,000 hoiho exist. About a third live on New Zealand’s South Island and nearby Stewart Island. The rest inhabit sub-Antarctic islands some 300 miles to the south. In the past 15 years, the northern population has plummeted by roughly 75 percent, and researchers expect that group could disappear within the next two decades if the trend continues. 

The decline stems from a litany of factors. Red cod, once a pillar of the hoiho diet, has become scarce, and blue cod, although larger, are harder to catch, eat and feed to their chicks than other staple fish. Penguins also drown each year in commercial gillnets. And a pair of diseases, avian diphtheria and, since 2019, a mysterious and fatal respiratory illness, also infect virtually every chick. Janelle Wierenga, a veterinary scientist at the University of Otago and Massey University, says potential vaccines and drugs are likely years away. 

To keep the species afloat, wildlife hospitals and conservation groups have taken the radical step of removing every single hoiho chick on the South Island from its nest and placing it in human care for its first week or so of life. Chicks are treated with antibiotics to heal the mouth sores caused by avian diphtheria. They’re also fed fish smoothies to boost their strength. It’s unclear how, but this extra care prevents chicks from developing the respiratory disease. “I’ve got the feeling that the diseases are a secondary problem, and the primary problem is the penguins don’t get the sustenance they need,” says Thomas Mattern, an ecologist at the University of Otago. 

In 2023, the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital hand-reared 214 hoiho chicks. Without human intervention, 50 to 70 percent of those chicks would have died, Lisa Argilla, the hospital’s senior wildlife veterinarian and director, estimates. But these herculean efforts can only offer a short-term reprieve. “We are trying to buy this population as much time as we can,” she says. “You feel like you’re fighting a losing battle, but we couldn’t live with ourselves if we didn’t fight for these penguins.”

[blackcherryflower]

Star cluster NGC 2264, also called the "Christmas tree cluster," is an array of young stars that are between one and five million years old. We know what you're thinking: young?! For a little comparison, the Sun is a middle-aged star about 5 billion years old about 1,000 times older than the stars in this cluster.

This image combines data from Chandra (red, green, and blue) with optical data (green and white) captured by astrophotographer Michael Clow with his telescope in Arizona in November 2024.

X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Clow, M.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and K. Arcand

By Smithsonian and NASAChandraXray

[stoplookingup]

This original Uhura uniform is part of the Afrofuturism exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. The item on the left is the flight suit Trayvon Martin wore when he attended a program called Experience Aviation.

[emaadsidiki]

Fortresses Under Fire🎨 Keith Ferris🖌️ Thunderbirds🛩️