Not all the smoke in the air around Puget Sound has been unintentional. For the third year in a row, researchers and land managers with various organizations from around the state conducted controlled burns last week of grasslands at Ebey’s Bluff and the Pacific Rim Institute of Environmental Stewardship. SEFS‘ Eric Delvin is quoted; read more in this story by the Whidbey News-Times. 

Reports of freshwater jellyfish seem to be on the rise in the rivers and lakes of Canada, sparking questions about how they got there. FHL‘s Claudia Mills is mentioned; read more in this CBC News article. 

Scientists have found that New Caledonian crows, like humans, can reason about hidden mechanisms, or “causal agents”. Published this week in PNAS, this study represents the first time that this cognitive ability has been experimentally demonstrated in a species other than humans, and the method may help scientists understand how this type of reasoning evolved, the researchers say. SEFS‘ John Marzluff is quoted; read more in this Wired.com 

A new study led by a biologist at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews used UW-designed electronic tags to see whether crows might learn to use tools from one another. The findings supported the theory by showing an unexpected amount of social mobility: during one week, the technology recorded more than 28,000 interactions among 34 crows! Read more about this study here.