Thyroid et al.

KEDM Public Radio | By Kelby Ouchley

Published June 6, 2016 at 9:00 AM EDT

A recurring theme in this Bayou-Diversity program involves our connections and links to the natural world. For today's show consider this hypothetical scenario. A young couple decides to celebrate their anniversary by dining out at a popular seafood restaurant on a warm spring evening. The special of the day is stuffed flounder, which they both choose to try along with a side order of fried frog legs as appetizers. When their dinner is served it is sprinkled with salt to embellish the rich natural flavors, and the meal is indeed memorable. Within the various elements of this setting there is a common biological thread that links them all. It involves your thyroid gland.

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Kelby Ouchley

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.

See stories by Kelby Ouchley