My Winter Slump......

The last few days were wonderful daytime highs in the 60 light breeze life was good. This morning I woke up to what seemed like a awesome fall morning, which lasted all of three hours. By 11:00am this morning the cloud celling had lowered the wind started to pick up and the snow started falling once again. Don't get me wrong I love going for walks in the snow enjoying the peaceful solitude and the subtle squeak of the snow under my boots, but this is our 4th significant snow so far this fall and as far as I'm concerned it is a little too early for me to be seeing this much snow. 

This somehow got me to thinking about animals who never EVER have to wake up on a particular cold morning stuff themselves into 4 layers of clothes and trudge off to work.  Marmots and ground squirrels I salute you for being the smartest animals on the planet. Marmots and ground squirrels spend a whopping  8 months of the year in hibernation.  Marmots generally crawl from their burrows in mid-May. From Mid-May through early September their days are spent eating food and catching some rays. About 44% of the time they are above ground in the morning hours is spent basking in the sun which helps them to get the most energy out of the food they eat. 

Marmot awaits hikers on the trail.

 

 

Now life is not all rosy for my marmot friends since they are a little on the portly side, as far as rodents go, there are a bunch of animals just waiting to eat them for lunch. Hawks roam the skies waiting to catch one alone. Coyotes, foxes, and weasels looking for a snack sniff out their underground burrows and dig them up.  Marmots are also trolling the talus slopes looking for nutrients just like all the other animals. Most of the animals nutrients comes from the food they eat or animals bones and antlers they gnaw on. However, there is the occasional added bonus from hikers who pee on the edges of the trail.  Yes, marmots and other animals will eagerly eat your pee marked ground in order to get nutrients they need to survive. And I'll throw this out there as a word of caution yes, marmots are small other animals which will also go after your pee are not and are WAY more dangerous, so please no marking your territory along the edges of the trail.

Two marmots fight over pee soaked ground.

 

 



By mid-August my marmot friends are beginning to feel sluggish and by early September have crawled back into their burrows for the last time until next year.  Around this time the weather starts to change in the high country. Stiff 45-50 mile an hour winds buffet the treeless slopes as the snow starts to fall from a cold grey sky.

Sleep well my marmot friends and may you safely avoid the weasels and coyotes who would love to eat you as you sleep. 

Humm.......Maybe Pika Next?

Maybe it is because I have been sick the last few days or maybe I have been in the woods too long, but my mind has been running amuck with ideas.  It all started when I read this article in The Guardian the other day.   I'll be the first to admit I don't understand the whole point of this experiment, but maybe it would help with research on pikas.

Pika are fun little critters only 6-8 inches in size and they are cute!  (Don't believe me check out the photos others have posted on Tumblr.)  In my life I have seen exactly one, yep one.  Not from lack of trying on my part either I've hiked high into the alpine regions of many parks and yet have seen only one of the elusive little buggers.

Problem with trying to see one is they are shy creatures, probably because there are so many things looking to eat them like golden eagles, weasels, foxes, coyotes, etcetera.  Also they don't do well with heat.  Their normal body temperature is 105F degrees and if their body temperature gets to close to 109F they can die.   There is a lot of research being conducted on how climate change is effecting populations of pika and the outlook is not good in most cases.  But with the help of ordinary people scientists have been able to map 139 new pika locations.

So what has this got to do with glow in the dark rabbits you ask?  What if in response to a warming climate they are foraging more in the evening and less during the day?  Small brown animals out in the evening would be very hard to spot.  Since pika are the smallest member of the rabbit order would it be possible to insert the jellyfish gene into pikas the same way they did to the rabbits?  I'm not suggesting we do it to a lot of them just 4 here and there just to see if they are changing foraging patterns in response to a warmer climate.

Just a thought.

From A Kid's Toy To Science Experiment.

It is always fun for me to see how scientists get inspired. A former coworker of mine was inspired to study bees after watching a beekeeper remove a colony of wild bees from her house in an old record player case.

Well now it seems that a child's toy magic wand has inspired one scientist to look a little closer at the spider webs and how they work.   This research will make spiders even cooler than they already are.

Most people don't realize that spider webs are a very time consuming process and that every day most spiders consume their webs and then respin  them all over again. After all you can't catch a tiny gnat for lunch if there is a hole in your web large enough for it to fly through.  Since these webs take a lot of time and resources to build spiders want to protect them from possible damage.  Our human eyes sadly do not allow us to see spider webs really well unless the sunlight is hitting it at just the right angle, but to birds these webs stick out like giant neon signs warning them to pull up, go around, get out of the way!  Some spiders also create doorbells, a strand of silk between one of the spider's legs and the web, so they don't always have to sit in the center. As soon as the web starts moving doorbell rings and the spider darts onto the web and grabs hold of it's prey before holes get ripped in the web. 

Did you ever wonder how a spider can walk across a web and not get stuck but a fly gets stuck like super glue?  The secret is they have a coating on the hairs and their feet which creates a nonstick surface also by walking slowly across the web they have much less of a chance of getting stuck to it as they spin their webs and as they catch their prey. As a spider moves across their webs they are using their  many eyes to keep track of shadows and movement near by. While a spider can have anywhere from no eyes (cave dwelling spiders) to eight eyes they don't see very well and can mainly make out shadows and movement not what it is that is causing it.

Spiders are oh so cool.

And The Toughest Animal In The World Is.......

Every now and then someone will ask me either what my favorite animal is or what I think the toughest animal in the world is. Asking a naturalist this is a kin to asking a mother to pick a favorite child.   However the more I learn about this little bird the more impressed I am and it may be making the list of my top 10 coolest animals ever.

Standing a whopping 6-8 inches tall and weighing not much more than 1.5-2.4 ounces is the American dipper. 

 

 

 

This little pint sized song bird spends a lot of it time under water looking for aquatic insects.  Not just any old kind of water FAST moving water.  (Think of a human trying to stand up in some super heavy whitewater while trying to grab a cheeseburger off the bottom.)  To accomplish this herculean feat they have mighty long toes with some sizable toenails which allow them to grip rocks and pebbles underneath the water allowing them to walk along the bottom.  They  also have their own built in goggles called a nictating membrane which helps to protect their eyes from floating debris. Probably the most important adaptation is the extra-large preen gland which secrets oil to help waterproof their feathers.  Dippers can often be seen standing on rocks bobbing up and down. Scientists really don’t know why they bob up and down it may help them to see well.

 

 

Also these little birds are members of the polar bear club.  Then the weather starts getting colder and the rivers and streams they feed in start to freeze to they head for warmer climates.

 

Nope they just head for the nearest free flowing steam and plunge right in for a snack! 

This might just be the toughest animal anywhere!


Dippers can often be seen standing on rocks bobbing up and down. Scientists really don’t know why they bob up and down it may help them to see well. They are well   Dippers are active in this area even in winter seeking out streams which are not frozen. anding a

EVERYONE OUTSIDE!!!!

Over the last two weeks I have been stuck indoors in what is known as seasonal training. I define this a torture and I'm sure it is against the Geneva Convention to keep people normally used to being outside confined in a small space being made to watch hour after hour of PowerPoint presentations.   So after almost two weeks of this I needed to get OUT!  After a BBQ the other night I grabbed my camera and walked about 1/4 mile away from our hotel to a field just outside the entrance to Glacier National Park. I plunked my butt in the middle of a field full of flowers and sat there watching the sunset behind the famous Lewis Thrust Overfault.

I hadn't been there more than a few minutes before a coyote on his nightly rounds stumbled apon me.  He cocked his head a little to the side and gave me this look of "what are you doing in my field?"  After a few glances he went back on his way.  The sun sank lower towards the horizon painting the sky a vibrant pink and throwing the last rays of sun onto the snowfields.

 

I sat there and watched the dying light play across the sky, suddenly becoming aware of a commotion taking place about a mile down the road. A large female moose lumbered from the willows and strolled down the street ignoring the paparazzi gathered on either side.  I glanced back to the sunset in front of me and who should appear but mister fox with a mouth full of food heading probably back to his den site.

 

 

With the chill in the air growing more intense and twilight giving way to night I strolled my way back to the lodge not realizing I was being watched from behind. As I neared the lodge a coworker shouted

 


from the third floor balcony that there was a moose behind me.  I turned and sure enough there bolting for the nearby hillside was a female moose suddenly startled by a sudden group of two legged animals in her path.

This week get outside and find a spot near a pond, in a field, or even a city park. You never know who you might see. 

"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.