More Squirrel Prints, Plus Some Bird Ones, Too!

As I MENTIONED YESTERDAY, we got our first real snow yesterday, and there were some squirrel footprints in our driveway.  After I made the post, when I got home, my father pointed out some bird footprints on the back porch, and this morning I saw some more, better squirrel prints on our back stoop.  I decided to share these cool prints with you as well, since squirrels and birds are quite rare in North America!  (Sarcasm).  The first two picture are of the bird tracks, and then all of the rest are from the eastern fox squirrel.

Bird tracks

I forgot the flash for this one, but I thought that the bird footprints still looked pretty cool with the green light coming from our back-porch light!

Squirrel Footprints on Our Doorstep!

This morning we woke up to a fresh blanket of snow, the first (real) snow of the year for us!  Naturally this means that I must do all of my first snow traditions, including watching the Battle of Hoth scene from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and wearing my Mammoth and Mastodon Madness t-shirt from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  Anyways, on my way over to school, I saw a few footprints.  I took a few pictures on my phone so they aren't very good looking, but I believe them to be from the eastern fox squirrel, the type of squirrel that is just so common around here in Boulder, Colorado!  If anyone knows otherwise please let me know, but I am 99.99% sure that this is what we are looking at!  The first two pictures are the ones that I took with my phone.  The first picture has an impression of my right index finger in the snow next to the footprints for scale.  The third picture is a picture that someone else took of some eastern fox squirrel footprints in the snow too!

Top 10 Favorite Dinosaurs by Zack Neher (Part 2)

Part two of my Top Ten Favorite Dinosaurs list.  Enjoy!

6. Pachycephalosaurus

The largest of the pachycephalosaurs, the name Pachycephalosaurus translates to "thick-headed lizard."  A large orbital socket indicates good vision, and, according to my "Prehistoric Life" book, the small teeth in its mouth indicates either herbivory or omnivory.  I have never heard anyone ever say anything about the pachycephalosaurs being omnivorous, so I have doubts about the authenticity of the statement.  Jack Horner suggested that Pachycephalosaurus and the other two pachycephalosaurs that lived in North America at the same time, Dracorex and Stygimoloch, were actually the same dinosaur and just represented different ontogenetic stages in their growth development, but that hypothesis has been almost completely refuted.  Due to the extremely tough-looking and thick skull, many paleontologists also have suggested that the pachycephalosaurs would clash heads much like the extant bighorn sheep, but studies of the necks of these animals indicate that these animals were likely not able to do this without breaking their necks.  Needless to say, this behavior was probably not something that they would attempt to do more than once.  Remains of Pachycephalosaurus have been found in the United States in the states of Wyoming, South Dakota, and Montana.

5. Amargasaurus

A fairly small sauropod, Amargasaurus is certainly quite unusual, as you can see in the pictures below!  On each of its twelve neck, or cervical vertebrae, a pair of spikes project out.  The functions of these spikes are unknown, but many theories have been put forth, from defense, to a sail being attached between each of the spikes to make the animal look bigger, even for heat control.  If a sail was not attached to the spikes, it is likely that they were covered in a layer of horn.  Whatever was on those spikes, it doesn't look like Amargasaurus had a very wide range of vertical mobility in its neck, so it seems likely that the small sauropod would have been mostly a ground-level feeder.  Amargasaurus has been found in Argentina in South America.

4. Utahraptor

While making Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg decided that the real-life Velociraptor wasn't scary enough for his movie.  Not only was Velociraptor actually pretty small (see the size comparison chart below), it was feathered!  But while they were making the movie, remains of the creature that would one day be known as Utahraptor were uncovered, and Spielberg had his monster.  (If you want to read more about this interesting happenstance, check out the introduction to Robert T. Bakker's FANTASTIC novel, Raptor Red, one of my top five favorite books of all time).  Utahraptor remains have been discovered in (can you guess?  I hope you can!) Utah. 

TO BE CONCLUDED IN PART 2

The Animals of Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park

As I mentioned earlier today, my family and I stayed at Estes Park a few nights ago.  During the day, we hit up the nearby Rocky Mountain National Park.  We saw a few different animals, a few of which I unfortunately was unable to get pictures of!  Here I will tell you all about the animals that we saw there!

First off, we went over to Lake Estes.  Despite the cold and the wind, probably a hundred or so geese, ducks, crows, and ravens were all scavenging around in the shallow water and the muddy areas.  We also saw a bald eagle, but unfortunately it was too far away for us to get any pictures.  Right before that, though, we spotted a muskrat (a little, water-loving rodent) swimming through the water!  It was really super cool, as it was an incredibly powerful swimmer!  We were walking along next to it, taking a ton of pictures and videos, but the muskrat was easily keeping pace with us!  It was swimming against the current, as well as against the wind, but somehow this rat-sized creature was able to forge ahead!

The muskrat swimming!

This is how far the muskrat swam!  It was certainly more than 100 yards, all keeping up with us!  CRAZINESS!

When I ran out in front of the muskrat to get pictures of it up close, it ducked into its burrow.  We were able to pinpoint the entrance because right out in front was a whole pile of what looked like chewed off crayfish pincers! 

The pile of chewed crayfish parts outside of the muskrat burrow

Some chewed parts on top of a rock

Here is a video of the muskrat swimming:

Muskrat Swimming Against The Current

We also saw a lot of elk, as we have talked about before.  Here are some more pictures that my mother took in the morning, around the same time that my Primos Truth Cam was picking them up, too!

The elk drinking on our first morning there!

An elk drinking on the first morning

 

When we first saw the elk right next to our cabin, a male mule deer walked right next to my mother and I, no more than ten feet from us while we were next to the river!  It was really cool, but a little sad to see how comfortable these animals are around humans.  Made for a good photo op, though!

The mule deer

That's our cabin, right there!

A male elk on the first night there, around the time that we saw the mule deer from above.  It was eating from a bird feeder!

While we were on our walk around Lake Estes, we passed by a male elk with a harem of four females on the golf course.  Here are some of those pictures!

The harem of female elk off to the left, while the male is grazing on the right

The male elk

The female elk

Another shot with the female elk off to the left and the male elk off to the right

And finally, a herd of elk in Rocky Mountain National Park!

Finally, although no one but my father saw it and we got no pictures of it, while we were driving in Rocky Mountain National Park at around 4:00 or so in the afternoon/evening, we almost ran over an ermine (also known as a stoat or a short-tailed weasel)!  Apparently it was adorned in its winter fur which, much like the arctic fox, changes with the seasons to blend in with its environment!  The ermine, along with otters, badgers, other weasels, and the wolverine, is a member of the family Mustelidae, colloquially referred to as the "mustelids."  The mustelids, in turn, are members of the superfamily Musteloidea, which we have discussed in the past.  It is within this superfamily that you will find coatis, raccoons, skunks, and red pandas. 

Estes Park on Dwellable

Elk in Estes Park: Up Close and Personal With Primos!

Recently, my family and I went up to Estes Park for the night.  I set up my Primos Truth Cam at our hotel, and didn't actually get any hits that night, but we got some most excellent pictures of elk, one of those members of the family Cervidae (like deer), from the very next morning!  Here are some of the best pictures from the Primos Truth Cam!

 

 

Check out that massive rack of antlers!

 

 

That was pretty exciting!  Those elk, or wapiti (the Native American term for elk, meaning "white rump") were no more than ten feet from us on our balcony!  I can upload more pictures later, but here is one final picture of the elk that we took at our cabin thingy!

I also wanted to let ya'll know that some of our polls closed the other day!  We had four polls about different things that you all wanted to featured on the blog, and three of them closed!  Here are the three different polls, what all of the voting options were, and who won!

Poll #1:  Animal You Would Most Like To See Featured

Corythosaurus: 5 Votes
Inkayacu: 6 Votes
Pallas's Cat: 7 Votes
AND OUR WINNER IS:
Bear-Dog: 8 Votes

For those of you who aren't entirely sure what these animals are, Corythosaurus is a Hadrosaur, a type of dinosaur, and Inkayacu is a fossil penguin found in South America.  The Pallas's cat is, of course, a cat.  And the bear-dog....well, we will learn more about this dude soon enough!

Poll #2:  Baby Animal That You Would Like To Be Featured

Sitatunga: 1 Vote
Geoffroy's Cat: 3 Votes
Aardvark: 4 Votes
Gentoo Penguin: 4 Votes
Tenrec: 4 Votes
Sifaka: 4 Votes
Stingray: 5 Votes
AND OUR WINNER IS:  A THREE-WAY TIE.  We will have to have a post with three baby animals in it!
Tasmanian Devil: 6 Votes
Sand Cat: 6 Votes
Aye-Aye: 6 Votes

Breakdown of the animals whose names do not make it clear what they are: Sitatunga is an antelope, aardvark is an animal that is featured HERE, tenrec is a hedgehog-looking creature from Madagascar, and the Sifaka is a lemur from Madagascar.

Poll #3:  Extinct Animal You Would Like To Hear More About

Megalania: 3 Votes
Opabinia: 4 Votes
Dire Wolf: 4 Votes
Dwarf Malagasy Hippo: 4 Votes
Cotylorhynchus: 5 Votes
AND OUR WINNER IS:
Thylacine: 7 Votes

Megalania is a gigantic relative of the Komodo dragon, Opabinia is a little creature that we will talk about later, the dire wolf was a larger relative of the gray wolf, the dwarf Malagasy hippo was just that: a dwarf hippo that lived on Madagascar, and Cotylorhynchus is also something that we will talk about later!

I will get more polls up hopefully sometime today, but in the meantime, keep in mind that we have a fourth poll open: the "Important Scientist Whose Discoveries You Would Like To Hear More About" poll.  Choose either Robert T. Bakker, David Attenborough, Matthew Mossbrucker, or Thomas R. Holtz!  Make your voice heard!

And since today is Thanksgiving, let's all take a moment to say what we are grateful for!  I'll start: I am thankful for raccoons.  Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Allenspark on Dwellable

He Should Have Just Played Dead, Man

For those of you who are acquainted with the top-notch television show "Psych," you might be familiar with the "High Top Fade Out" episode with Blackapella.  If you are not familiar then you are very confused and wondering what is going on.  Bear with me, bad pun intended.  At one point in the episode, Joon, played by Keenan Thompson, says of a recently murdered friend, "He should’ve just played dead, man. I always said that’s what I would do if somebody was trying to kill me. Just play dead. I mean, they’d be like, 'We’re gonna kill you!' And then I’d be like - dead - and then they’d be like, 'Oh he’s dead, let’s go kill somebody else.' And then they would leave."

Despite the fact that this was a humorous scene in a humorous television show, Joon's logic is not terrible.  While it may not work all that well for a human, it does work quite well for a different animal: the Virginia opossum.

Despite the fact that one typically thinks of Australia and New Guinea when one hears the word "marsupial," marsupials are actually found throughout South America, and even in North America as well!  The Virginia opossum is actually the only marsupial to be found in North America north of Mexico, and is around the size of a house cat, European wildcat, Geoffroy's cat, African wildcat, marbled cat, margay, leopard cat, pampas cat, sand cat, oncilla, kodkod, black-footed cat, flat-headed cat, or the rusty-spotted cat.  (And yes, I am setting up a cat feature for next week). 

Originally native only to the east coast of the United States (i.e. Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Massachusetts, etc.), it was introduced to the west coast around the time of the Great Depression, likely for use as food.  Below is a map of its range today.

Anyways.  Have you ever heard someone use the expression "playing possum?"  This expression originates from an odd but effective behavior employed by the Virginia opossum: it feigns its own death!  Scientists believe that this is an involuntary reaction on the part of the opossum when it experiences fear.  The fear reportedly has to be intense, however, as if the opossum is only mildly afraid, then it will react fiercely, screeching, hissing, and just generally freaking out its antagonist.  Who wants to mess with an angry possum?

If the opossum becomes stressed enough, though, it will collapse into a coma-like state, sometimes for as long as four hours.  While in this coma, the opossum will secrete a green fluid from its anus, a terrible smelling mixture, to make predators think that it is a gross and diseased carcass so they don't mess with it.

Of course, if an opossum becomes super stressed because it sees a car screaming down towards it on a road, I'm guessing that playing dead will only be a temporary measure.  Cars don't appear to have made that big of a dent in the populations of these creatures, as they are labeled "Least Concern" by the IUCN. 

One final thing about the Virginia opossum!  When we were on our California/Oregon driving trip in 2011, we found a hilarious poster like the one below in a shop window!  I laughed so hard!

This birthday post goes out to Chris Koreerat, happy birthday Chris!  If you have a birthday coming up, just email me the date at cuyvaldar123946@gmail.com with the date and your favorite animal, and I will do my best to get a post in!

Gatlinburg City on Dwellable

Behind the Scenes at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo....AGAIN!

On Monday, my father, sister and I again traveled to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo with my grandma and grandpa and got another behind the scenes experience from Kelley Parker!  Thanks again, Kelley!  No penguins this time, but we did get to feed the tigers and river otters, as well as see the grizzlies behind the scenes again!  Here are a few pictures and videos from the awesome trip!  I will add some more pictures and videos later on, as well as some pictures and video of other animals from the zoo from both this time and last time, as I forgot to upload any last time as well!  Enjoy!

Feeding the Amur Tiger!

Siberian Tiger Rolls Around

Feeding the River Otters at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!

Myself feeding one of the tigers!

The tiger playing with a pumpkin that we put into its enclosure for it....I will upload an awesome video of this later!

One of the other tigers staring at us from its yard.  Isn't it beautiful!

The third tiger staring up at us from below, in the enclosure that can be seen by the public.  Despite the fact that we were probably more than one hundred feet away and behind a wall with only a few tiny openings, it knew EXACTLY where we were!  How neat!

A cute picture of one of the river otters eating a trout chunk!

Another cute picture of one of the river otters eating a trout chunk!

One of the two grizzly bears.  Right before I took this picture he made a loud noise and kind of jumped at me, it scared the living daylights out of me!

Divide on Dwellable