Loot+Crate+Magazine+January+2016

first imported in 1973 by a private
fish farmer in Arkansas. By the
late ‘70s, they had been stocked at
several private and governmental
water-related facilities to help
control algae growth. Twenty years
later, the fish spread to 12 different
states including Michigan and
Illinois via the Mississippi River and
today is causing a huge problem
environmentally.
Silver carp eat a tremendous
amount of food, primarily plankton,
which means there’s not enough
for native creatures, and they have
no natural predators which has
allowed their population to explode.
They can also launch themselves
out of the water when startled
(earning the nickname “flying fish”)
which has lead to many injuries to
assorted water-goers. Unsuspecting
people have received broken noses,
jaws, and vertebrae as well as
concussions by these agile invaders.
Electric fences have been installed
along the Great Lakes to prevent
them from spreading further but,
like any good invader, even that may
not be enough to contain them.
Castrator Barnacles
This little creature not only affects
the mind of a crab, it changes its
body! The female larva finds a weak
joint and injects itself into the crab’s
body and hijacks its reproductive
system, nesting and forming a
sac on the underside of the crab’s
rear thorax where its eggs would
normally be. Then the male comes
and fertilizes the barnacle eggs,
triggering the crab’s maternal
instinct causing it to care for and
hatch the eggs.
If you’re wondering how it got its
name, when one of these barnacles
infests a male crab, it will change its
body chemistry to make it a more
welcoming host. It triggers a shift
in hormones that sterilizes it and
shifts its body and mannerisms to
more closely mirror females - it will
even perform mating dances These
barnacles also prevent crabs from
molting, depriving them of nutrition
and stunting their overall growth.
They also lose the ability to regrow
severed claws, thus making it
harder to protect themselves.
Influenza Virus
Now we may know why people
who get sick rarely stay home
when they’re supposed to. In 2010,
Biomedical Anthropologist Chris
Reiber of Binghamton University
in New York headed a study that
suggested the flu makes people
more social.
Reiber and her colleagues found
evidence that people with the flu, in
this case immunization recipients,
interacted with more people in
larger groups in the 48-hour period
immediately after exposure than
before. Which means the virus has
a greater opportunity to infect more
people before it dooms its host to a
cold-medicine-induced quasicoma.
Devious!
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LOOT CRATE MAGAZINE