"Humans Tear Down These Fences!"

Last week I spent a lot of time driving across North Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana and there was nothing sadder than a group of pronghorns lined up near a fence just staring at it wishing and hoping they could just get on the other side.

For those of you who have never seen a pronghorn let me introduce you to this fine fellow.

Male Pronghorn in Yellowstone By Jen Heindel

 

Male and female pronghorn look similar, both have horns, but the easiest way to tell a male and female apart is by looking for a black patch of fur where you could imagine Elvis' lamb-chop sideburns, these are the males. Female's chin is all white no black patch.

 

Pronghorns are an interesting groups of animals because they are just so different from anything else. Pronghorns are antelope, but they are not like any other antelope on the planet, so scientist put them in a group all by themselves. Pronghorns evolved during a time when we still had very large "prehistoric" like cats roaming the grass lands, so they developed great speed to keep from becoming lunch.  Some reports say they have been clocked running at sustained speeds of 60 miles per hour, but most researchers put it a little closer to a little over 50 miles per hour. Now before you get any ideas about challenging a pronghorn to a race with you at the wheel of your car remember this; the pronghorn is the most laidback animal on the planet. Most of the time there are wild animals so unpredictability is their middle name. Fifty miles an hours is fast enough to outrun all of today's predators which roam the plains with them. They are built for great speed, but sadly lack the ability to jump. All the other ungulates (deer, elk, moose) can all jump fences quite easily, but sadly the same is not true for the pronghorn. Put a fence in front of  a pronghorn and they will have no choice but to walk the whole fence looking for an open gate.

 

There is another unique thing about pronghorns which makes them different from all horned animals. Horns are made out of keratin, the same stuff your fingernails are made from, and grow a little bit each year adding on another distinct growth ring.  But pronghorns have to be different, they shed their outer sheath of the antler each year.  The new horn is actually growing under the part which is falling off.  

 

Pronghorns are the coolest animals found on the prairie.

 

 

 

Female pronghorn on the left, male on the right. By Jen Heindel

 

 

For more information:

 

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/antelope/



http://www.wcs.org/saving-wildlife/hoofed-mammals/pronghorn.aspx

http://www.gpnc.org/pronghor.htm



Call Out The CSI Team!

There have been a series of murders in the yard over the last week leaving me feeling much distress.  I currently live in the suburbs of a small Midwestern city where the space between houses is about six feet at the most and much of the surrounding farm fields have been converted into condo subdivisions. With that said I have become sort of attached to some of the wildlife which does exist in the yard.

Murder #1 The Robins

The first animals to be murdered were a nest of unhatched  baby robins. Mr. & Mrs. Robin lovingly placed their nest in the branches of the pine tree in the front yard defending it from all would be intruders and those of us who dared walk near it to look at the blooming flowers. She then laid a clutch of 3 bright blue eggs and that's when things went to poop.  The nest now lays overturned under the pine tree the three blue eggs each of which has a tell tail beak sized hole in it. 

Murder #2 Mc Squidgey

Now Mc Squidgey was a rather cunning grey squirrel who spent the winter eating an entire HUGE block of peanut suet, put out for the birds. Once she had polished off the big one she ate not just one but 2 smaller suet blocks!

Here is Mc Squidgey doing her best to scare people sitting at the kitchen table.



Murder #3 Pfeffernusse

Pfeffernusse was a rather large cottontail rabbit who spent much of the winter eating seeds, which the birds kicked onto the ground from the birdfeeder. Pfeffernusse would spend cold stormy nights under the stacked lawn chairs or the edge of the chimney.

Now I know what your thinking; how do I know that the other grey squirrels or rabbits that move through the neighborhood are not my beloved backyard friends? Simple they had very distinct markings on them.   Pfeffernusse had a stripe of missing hair on the middle of it's back on the left side and Mc Squidgey had bright white ears where as all the other squirrels have grey ears.

So what happened to them?

Murder #1 The Robins

Culprit: The European Starling. 
Bias Alert! I hate these birds! I may or may not have killed off some baby starlings my roommates had found laying in the lawn of our place of employment. I suggested feeding it to the raptors we had at the rehabilitation clinic, but they decided we needed to feed them and raise them. So for weeks we took turns feeding them mash (as prescribed by our wildlife biologist), changing the poopy paper, and keeping them warm. Until one day I running late for work, and forgetting it was my morning to feed the creeps, threw a hand full of mealworms into a cup of water. After the wiggling stopped I figured I was safe and grabbed the tweezers to stuff them in the gullets of the two noisy houseguests.  Full, I headed to work not giving them another thought until later that night I was accused of murder. See I hadn't left the meal worms in the cup of water long enough to actually kill them I merely had stunned them. And during the day they had chewed their way out of the starling's stomachs killing them (as confirmed by our wildlife biologist).   Now before you get all upset starlings are not native to the United States they were brought here in 1890 and released into Central Park. They are extremely aggressive bird which has been know to steal nest from other birds throw the eggs over the side and take over the nest as their own. Starlings will also peck open and eat the eggs of the nest they are taking over, but mainly they feed on insects.

Murder #2 Mc Squidgey
Culprit: Raptor or Heart Attack

I'm not a hundred percent sure what may have happened, but I'm sure it had something to do with the weight gain from eating too many suet block over the winter.  There are a lot of red-tailed hawks living in the neighborhood which I have seen chase after smaller speedier squirrels.  Yes, there has been a recent squirrel meets tire incident, but I checked no white ears.  So, if your a raptor cruising the hood who would you eat a small speedy squirrel or a fat slow moving squirrel.

Murder #3 Pfeffernusse
Culprit: Vulpes vulpes

I found clumps of rabbit hair while moving the yard and after I was done took a stroll through the neighborhood looking for headless rabbits hanging in trees. Didn't find any, so that ruled out the local area raptors.  Confused? I'll explain raptors, smaller than a great horned owl, will feed on prey items the size of a rabbit where they kill it because they are generally too heavy and awkward to carry to a perch to feed on.  However, raptors like the great horned owl or larger can carry heavy prey to a nearby tree and then feast until they are full leaving the rest to rot in the tree.  I once worked on Gallop's Island in the middle of Boston Harbor and often found some of our slower rabbits headless hanging in trees killed the night before by the population of Great Horned owls on the nearby Lovells Island.  Since I found hair, but no body, I checked nearby tall trees for left over rabbit. A few days later after coming back from a walk I saw a most curious sight. Vulpes vulpes bold as brass trotting through the neighbors back yards!

    Red Fox In Yellowstone National Park by Peter Zuzga

 

 

I tore out the back door thinking I was suffering from heat induced delusions only to hear the neighbor's scream as he trotted past them.  COOL!!! I know there are red foxes, coyotes, and occasionally wolves in the area, but I have never seen them EVER.  It is entirely possible my dear rabbit became lunch for the local fox and he was probably in the area scouting for another meal when he was spotted by the two legged locals.  I'm hoping to see him or her again  (goodness knows there are still many many many more rabbits to eat) because watching them pounce is pretty fun.  Feast well my friend!

 



Red Fox Pounce by Peter Zuzga

 

Murders Solved. Case Closed. 









Rub John Harvard’s Foot Without Fear?

If I say the words Periodic Table of Elements what is your first reaction? Sweaty hands, dry mouth, panic attack, horror flashbacks to high school or college classes of hours of boring lectures?  I will admit right now I hated chemistry in high school and college. I almost flunked out of college because of my inability to remember if certain elements bonded covalently or how may p or s orbitals they had in their atoms.  And truly the only thing I remember from high school chemistry was our chemistry teacher accidentally setting the Periodic Table of Elements chart on fire the first day.   

However, I am beginning to come around to the fun side of the Periodic Table of Elements since reading The Disappearing Spoon. I thought that the only fun you could have with the Periodic Table of Elements could be listening to the renowned mathematician and professor Tom Lehrer sing his song “The Elements.” (If you haven’t heard it click the link.)  I applaud the author, Sam Kean, for his ability to collect and use so many FUN stories and information about the Periodic Table of Elements. Do you know why  Gandhi hated iodine, how solving a math equation wrong and then sending your wrong answer to Einstein can win you a Nobel Prize, why  a noted astronomer in 1564 who lost his nose in a sword duel had it replaced with one made out of silver, and what’s the deal with copper piping?  

Sam Kean’s section on the oligodynamic properties of copper and silver got me to thinking about the time I once visited the famous statueof three lies while showing a friend around Boston. We stood on the Harvard campus watching students and others needing luck, rub, lick, and kiss John Harvard’s left foot.  Yuck, I though why would you touch that after watching someone lick the statue? Millions of germs spreading from person to person……..or maybe not?  There are certain metals in the Periodic Table of Elements; silver, copper, aluminum, zinc, and tin which have been shown to kill certain bacteria, algae, and fungi within a few hours.  As these organisms move across the surface of these metals they pick up metal atoms which once they get into the cells disrupts their metabolism and in some cases messes up their cell’s DNA causing the cells to die. Scientists call this the oligodynamic effect. Scientists still are not 100% sure how the oligodynamic effect works but people have been using and experimenting with different metals since 1000 BC.  People in 1000 BC left river water in silver pots sitting in the sun then filtered the water to remove sand and bits of plant matter and found the water was drinkable.  Silver coins were dropped into milk jugs to keep the milk from spoiling as people moved westward across America.  Since 1976 copper tubes have been put in air conditioners to kill harmful bacteria growing in the warm moist environment.  One recent research paper shows copper can kill drug resistant salmonella in water in 4-8 hours, while tin is less effective at killing nasty organisms which make us humans deathly ill. 

Back to John Harvard.  His statue is made up of bronze which is a mixture of copper and tin, both have oligodynamic properties.  A group of researchers showed bronze plates (94% copper 6% tin) to be slower at killing harmful organisms when submerged in contaminated water then pure copper plates.  So, I think this callsl for an experiment! All I need to do is fly to Boston swab John Harvard’s left foot and grow the swab on a culture medium plate (something which looks a little like Jello which scientists grow bacteria on) to figure out what types of bacteria are on his foot.  While the bacteria are growing keep everyone from touching the foot and then at 4 hour intervals swab his foot and grow those swabs to see if the oligodynamic properties of bronze help to kill all the nasty stuff I think maybe on John’s foot.  If the oligodynamic effect works maybe his foot would self-sterilized by morning if no one touched it at night. Who knows? Anyone near Harvard who has access to a bacteria lab and who can figure out how to control for all the experimental variables I have not thought of please run this experiment and then tell me what your results are. I wait with baited breath!