Trivia Contest of Winter 2013

Welcome to the Trivia Contest of the Winter 2013 here at The Natural World!  Here's how I think it's going to go down:

The contest will be composed of three rounds (possibly four or more if we have a bunch of people sign up, but I'm guessing three will probably do).  The dates that I put forth here are subject to change, but I will give you plenty of notice if this is the case.  Right now, I anticipate uploading the first round of questions within the next day or so, and you will have until Saturday the 28th to answer the questions.  I will include an answer sheet that you can email to me with your answers.  Please include your team name and the names of the team members.  I will figure out each teams score on the 28th, and upload the results to the blog.  That day, I will also upload the second round of questions.  You will have until that Friday, January 3rd to answer that round.  That Friday, I will again calculate the scores for round 2, and add them to your total score.  I'm not going to plan any further ahead than that for now.  Same goes for prizes: don't expect anything TOO huge, probably just a write up on the blog about something that you want me to write about, but stay tuned: if we have enough people participate, I might up the ante to something that you all might actually want!  Oh, and also, bragging rights, and a place of championship on the blog's right sidebar, until our next trivia contest!

The questions will focus heavily on animals, both living and extinct.  There will also be several questions (probably about 25% overall) that don't really fall into either category, including topics such as astronomy, Latin/Greek roots, riddles, and some scientific terms relating to the natural sciences.

Who or what can you consult in your quest for answers?  Your team mates, for starters.  I obviously have no way of enforcing these rules, but I would like this to be more of a contest in which you use your own knowledge, and not display your prowess in regards to surfing the Internet.  So for Round 1, which has 25 questions, I think I will ask that you use your own knowledge and the knowledge of your teammates for all except for three questions.  One question, you can post to Facebook and ask your Facebook friends to help you.  (If you don't have a Facebook, I suppose just call a friend).  A second question, you can look up on the Internet.  Finally, a third question you can search for on the blog.  Most, but not all, of these questions can be at least partially answered by various posts on the blog.  Again, I have no way of enforcing these rules, so let's just try and keep it on the up and up!

There is no age limit for this contest, and there is no level of experience that is required, although a rudimentary knowledge of animals and/or dinosaurs definitely can't hurt!  I hope this proves to be as much fun as I hope it will be, and any feedback that you all have will definitely prove beneficial in the future!  I think I've covered pretty much everything, but if you have any questions, don't hesitate to inform me.  I will address future problems as they come up!  My email is tnaturalworld1@gmail.com, I look forward to hearing from all of you!

Stick, Leaf, and Buffalo Insects at the San Diego Zoo

Recently, my family and I visited San Diego for my cousins wedding, and we were able to make a stop at the San Diego Zoo!  Amongst the many fascinating critters that we saw there, we got to see several incredible insects, the best of which were expert camouflagers!  First off, we have the dead leaf mantis, Deroplatys dessicata.  Similar to both the walking leaves and the ghost mantis mentioned in the last post about the greater angle-winged katydid (click HERE to check that out), the dead leaf mantis is perfectly adapted for lying in wait for its prey amongst the leaf litter of the Asian forests it calls home!  If you can't see it, the mantis is in the center of the two pictures below.

Next, we have Heteropteryx dilatata, or the jungle nymph!  The females of this species are one of the heaviest insects, reaching almost ten inches!  This one is less of a camouflager, and more of just an awesome insect!  My mother is used for scale in the zoomed out picture.

This insect is another katydid, just like Damu!  This is the giant katydid, Macrolyristes corporalis, also native to Malaysia, as well as Indonesia.  Though I am not as impressed by the giant katydids camouflage skills as I am of Damu's, it still is a pretty cool insect!

Next up is the children's stick insect, Tropidoderus childrenii!  This guy eats eucalyptus leaves down under in Australia.

If I remember correctly, the jumping stick of the genus Stiphra was in the same cage as the children's stick insect.  This one is one of those really great camouflagers: not only is it an insect camouflaged as a stick, its a stick insect camouflaging as a walking stick!  Despite this superficial resemblance, the jumping stick is actually in the same family as the grasshoppers!  They are native to Peru.

One last camouflaging insect!  Below is the New Guinea Stick Insect, Eurycantha calcarata, native to Papua New Guinea!  According to the zoo signs, the males make up for the fact that they are smaller than the females by having giant spikes on their legs and emitting a "foul-smelling secretion."  I'm not certain whether I have a male or a female pictured.  My mother is again used for scale in the zoomed out picture.

Got two more insects for you!  The first is actually a picture of just one insect, a jade-headed buffalo beetle, Eudicella smithi.  This beautiful African beetle eats tree sap, pollen, and rotten fruit.

Finally, for those of you who don't like ants, you might not want to look at the next picture!  Leaf cutter ants!  Millions of these suckers can fit in a single colony: now THAT would be an infestation!

All of this info was brought to you by the labels at the San Diego Zoo.

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Damu the Greater Angle-Winged Katydid!

A few months ago, I looked up at the dorm room wall and there was a katydid perched there!  I captured him and put him in a container for a week!  I learned a little bit about katydids, so put your listening ears on!

Damu in his container.  "Damu" means "blood" in Swahili, and for good reason.  This little insect was a bloodthirsty demon, I tell you what.  Which is a joke because it eats leaves.  Ha.

I figured out that Damu was probably a greater angle-winged katydid (Microcentrum rhombifolium), native to the southwestern and eastern United States.  The adults are only around from between July and October, except in Florida, where the higher year round temperatures allow the species to live year round.

The greater angle-wing is pretty large as insects go (especially here in Colorado), and looks quite cool!  As you can probably tell from the picture below, the katydid has evolved to superbly mimic its surroundings: i.e., the leaves of trees!  This makes the katydid one of my Top Ten Favorite Camouflagers, one of four insects to make the cut!

Top Ten Favorite Camouflagers
By Zack Neher

1.  Octopus
2.  Walking Leaves
3.  Leafy Sea Dragon
4.  Katydid
5.  Ghost Mantis
6.  Harry Potter Under the Invisiblity Cloak
7.  Arctic Fox
8.  Walking Stick
9.  Optimus Prime
10.  Ptarmigan
11.  Leaf-Tailed Gecko


If you live in much of the United States (refer to the map below), you can probably see the greater angle-winged katydid!  Or, at least, hear it!  I know for me personally, once I knew what I was listening to, I heard them ALL the time!  Click the link to hear a sound clip of the male making its distinctive clicking sound!  (Damu made these sounds, which is why I am almost positive of him being a male).

Male Katydid Clicking Sounds

Damu is sadly no longer with us: I kept him for about a week, and decided to let him go.  He spent a lot of time making his clicking sounds (which are surprisingly loud for a critter of his size), especially at night when we were trying to sleep.  It got quite annoying, and I wanted him to be free, so I released him from his prison.  Plus he pooped WAY more than an insect of his size should.

I caught another katydid later on, this time a female.  You could tell that Damu Mbili (Damu II in Swahili) was a female because she never clicked and had an ovipositor, an organ possessed by some animals to aid in egg laying.  She died in the middle of October, right around when you would expect these katydids to pass away, though I did hear male katydids clicking away intermittently through the 27th of October.  Here are a few pictures.

Check back soon for our next post, where we look at some insects that I saw at my recent visit to the San Diego Zoo, many of which are expert camouflagers!

Works Referenced:

Altair and Fomalhaut: Cold’s Cottonwood and Big Woman

Recently for my Ancient Astronomy class, I did a brief paper on Native American legends surrounding the stars Altair and Fomalhaut, which are two of the brightest stars in the southern sky of the United States. It is of no surprise that numerous Native American legends have been created surrounding these two stars, and the stars in their direct vicinity.  In the post, I used screenshots from the Stellarium.

One of these constellations is what the Greeks referred to as Aquila or the Eagle.  Within Aquila is a line of three stars that is often referred to as the head of the eagle or the head of Aquila, consisting of Altair and the two stars on either side: Alshain and Tarazed. These three stars are in a line that is fairly straight, and has led to many interesting myths.

One myth comes from the Maricopans, a tribe native primarily to southern Arizona. For the Maricopans, the head of Aquila was called “Cold’s Cottonwood,” a constellation that would appear in the sky at dawn in January, “when the yellow blossoms appear on the cottonwoods.” The flowering part of the cotton plant, known as a catkin, does resemble the stars in the head of Aquila.

Another myth is the Coeur d’Alene story of a trio of people running in a race, which is represented by “three stars in a row.” A good candidate for this constellation is the head of Aquila, as Orion’s Belt (a much brighter trio of stars in a row) is thought to have been a bark canoe.

While Altair was an important star for some tribes, for the Klamath of southern Oregon, the star Fomalhaut is more prevalent in their stories. “Kai,” or “Rabbit,” was said to be a star that would appear in the southeastern sky before the sun rose in May and June, and was supposed to be able to “freeze the lake by looking at it.” Fomalhaut, which not only can be seen in the southeast just before dawn in May and June, is also the brightest star in that particular area of the sky, making it a very likely candidate for Kai. Numerous other tribes had stories surrounding Fomalhaut as well, such as the Luiseño, who called Fomalhaut “Nawiwit Chawachwish” and believed that this star was a great chief who “went to the sky” after he died; and the Northern Paiute, whose star “Big Woman,” or “Paba’i-yü-mogo’tni,” also fits the description of Fomalhaut.

Sources:

Miller, Dorcas S. Stars of the First People: Native American Star Myths and Constellations. Westwinds Press, 1997. (accessed December 7, 2013).

Fishing With Bears: An Interview With Larry Quilling

Here is the last post in the four part series that started with my investigation into the difference between anadromous and catadromous fish (a difference which you can learn about HERE).  My investigation resulted with me contacting Dr. Joe Richardson, Wallace Westfeldt, and Larry Quilling, three people with an enormous quantity of knowledge when it comes to the different fish that fit under both categories.  We've already heard from Dr. Joe and Wallace with a post featuring each of them (Dr Joe's post HERE and Wallace's post HERE), and now it's time to hear from Larry Quilling!  The youth director for Boulder Flycasters and a member of the Board of Directors of Trout Unlimited, whose mission is to conserve, protect, and restore cold water fisheries.  Larry is another one of the expert fisherman that came into my Outdoor Ed class last year to teach us how to fish.  He took us down to Viele Lake, the lake right next to my high school, and we did our best to reel in some dinner!  (Except you would probably not want to eat the fish in Viele Lake, the lake is pretty stagnant and foul.)  I remembered that Larry had mentioned that he had fished for salmon alongside grizzly bears, and so I knew he would be a good person to contact in regards to salmon fishing!  I've reproduced the interview here for everyone to read: there are some pretty awesome pictures within!

Larry Quilling holding a spring Chinook salmon in the Trask River in Oregon!

The Natural World:  In the last few blog posts, we've been talking about anadromous fish, and focusing specifically on the mass migrations of salmon.  What experience do you have when it comes to these mass migrations?

Larry Quilling: I have a good friend whom I visit in Oregon every summer and winter when possible to fish for steelhead trout and salmon.  Here are a few pictures of Tom and I fishing the Oregon coast. Tom has a cabin on the Trask River near Tillamook where I love to fish for spring Chinook. We regularly head to the Columbia River in the late summer where we fish for them as well. The fish I catch in the Trask in late summer are spring spawn fish still held over from the spring run. You will notice their colors morph from the bright silver to dark green and beyond once in the rivers.

Fall Chinook(Kings) from the 2013 Columbia River Trip.

Trask Spring Chinook, 2013

Tom's daughter Margie with a steelhead.

TNW:  I remember you mentioned fishing in Alaska last year.  Do you have any pictures from that?

LQ:  Tom and I went to King Salmon, Alaska two summers ago. The pictures below are from the NakNak River and Katmai National Park.

Fishing with the bears in Katmai. We were fishing just 60-70 yards upstream of these guys. They are all fishing for the sockeye run.

Tom's King from the NakNak.

Me with a a NakNak sockeye.

Patricia and I with a sockeye.

TNW: Tell me more about fishing with the bears! Were they good about maintaining their distance, or did you have any encounters which were a little too close for comfort?

LQ:  Fishing just downstream of the floating bridge at Brooks lodge, I hooked a sockeye.  The commotion and splash alerted another interested party on the other side of the bridge who swam underneath to come see what was going on.

This young griz came to investigate. He is standing right where I was in the previous picture! We took this picture after I landed my fish and got the hell out of there. Rangers were yelling at me the whole time but no one told me the break off my fish.

A picture of my catch....

....and a pose with my fishing partner.

What an incredible opportunity to go fishing so close to wild grizzly bears!  Thanks again for taking the time to talk with me Larry, and we hope to hear from you again soon!  To learn a little bit more about Larry, you can check out his profile on the Boulder Flycasters website HERE!


Unless otherwise noted, the photo credit for all of the photos in the post goes to Larry Quilling.

Fishing for Salmon on Land and Sea: An Interview With Wallace Westfeldt

As I have mentioned several times now, my investigation into the difference between anadromous and catadromous fish (a difference which you can learn about HERE) resulted in me contacting Dr. Joe Richardson, Wallace Westfeldt, and Larry Quilling with different questions about different fish that fit under both categories. Wallace Westfeldt is the Head Guide at Front Range Anglers (book a trip with him HERE), and last year he came into my Outdoor Ed class to teach us about stream ecology. We also went on a field trip with him to scrounge up some aquatic insects and insect larvae, and I've shared these pictures below the interview.  Wallace had some interesting things to share about fishing for salmon as well, and I decided to make this another post in the anadromous/catadromous series!

Wallace Westfeldt holding a Steelhead in Idaho.  By this point, these incredible fish have already swum 850 miles!

The Natural World: We've been talking about salmon migrations here on the blog for the last few days.  Have you ever had the opportunity to fish and/or see one of these mass migrations?

Wallace Westfeldt: Yes, I have been to Alaska for the Coho (Silver) Salmon migration; in 2012 and 2013. My trips were a little different than the norm. Most people go to the rivers, I was fishing in ocean at Yakutat. Here the Salmon feast on bait fish (mainly herring) to fatten up before going up river. We also spent some time inland at various river inlets where the fish would crowd and compete for going upriver. My fly was called a Seeker. When wet, it looks more like a herring than a herring does. However, I don't think fly choice is an issue. You need to get your hooks in front of a fish and they will eat. They are kind of crazy. In the ocean you are searching for baitballs and/or schools of Silvers. Baitballs are exactly what you would expect: massive spheres (10-30 in diameter) of bait fish swirling and the Salmon attack it.

A female Silver at sea.

Getting solid hook-ups can be challenging. The mouth of a male Silver has an enormous overbite and is cavernous. It is important to get the fly deep in the mouth. When you seem them strike, you can see how aggressive they are for food. Their tiny little eyes can't see the end of their strike, so the mouth opens wide and goes from side to side to get its prey. I don't think they feel the pain of the hook, because when they would pop off at the skiff they would sometimes hit the next hook. However, when they feel the tug of the line they panic and put up an extraordinary battle to get away.

Another female. 

A male: check out the overbite!

TNW:  Where else have you been to catch anadromous fish?

WW: I have also been to Idaho to catch Steelhead trout.  They swam 850 miles. We drove 900. They were in better shape than we were. Bitterly cold fishing, but excellent. When we hook up the fish would weave back and forth in the current, as if irritated, then they would take off. You weren't always sure who caught who.  In truth the pictures I have don't represent how big they can get. Those were the ones I caught.

A steelhead.

TNW:  When you were in Idaho, 850 miles into the salmon journey, how much further did the Steelhead have to swim?

WW: We were near the end of their run by about 50 miles. Because Idaho is so far away from the ocean, they only get one run. Closer locations in Washington and Oregon get several.


TNW: I've noticed the overbite before, what purpose does it serve? It seemed to me that it came about only in the males, and after they were undergoing their pre-spawn transformation, is that correct? Does it play a role in attracting a mate?

WW:  For Cohos, it's an overbite, for Browns, Bows, and Steelhead, it is an underbite, called a kype or kype jaw. As the male gets older there is always some evidence of the kype. However, you are correct that when in spawning mode, it gets more pronounced, as do the colors of Bows, Browns, and Chromers (steelhead nickname). You may also see other changes ... for example I caught a very large Brown once and it was particularly slimy.  Trout have more slime than most fish because their scales are small and soft and don't offer any protection. So the slime is protective.

That's a Brown Trout caught in Mother Lake just west of Loveland. His name is Big Mike, slimy guy in pure spawn mode.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Wallace for taking the time to answer my questions!  It was very informative, and really interesting!  Thanks again, and make sure you check out his website by clicking HERE!  Before we go though, here are some of the pictures that I took while we were on the field trip with Wallace.

Unless otherwise noted, the photo credit for all of the photos in the post goes to Wallace Westfeldt.

The Sargasso Sea and the North American Eel: An Interview With Dr. Joe Richardson

In our last post, we looked at the difference between anadromous and catadromous fish, as well as several examples of each type of fish.  Eager to learn more, I contacted several people who have been very helpful to me in the past so that I could learn more.  One of these people was Dr. Joe Richardson, a marine biologist who gives Ecology Tours (which I highly recommend) on Tybee Island in Georgia, and whose Facebook page can be reached by clicking HERE.  Dr. Joe has helped me out a lot in the past, including providing a guest post about moon snails way back in February (which can be reached by clicking HERE!  When my family and I were on the Ecology Tour several years ago, I remember Dr. Joe mentioning something about the Sargassum seaweed that could be found on the beach.  Therefore, when I was researching the North American eel for the anadromous/catadromous post and I came across mentions of this same seaweed, I decided to ask Dr. Joe a few questions about the eel and the seaweed.  I wanted to make sure that you all could benefit from his knowledge as well, so I am reproducing the interview here!  

A picture of Dr. Joe holding a Portuguese Man of War!  WARNING: TRAINED PROFESSIONAL.  DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PICK UP A PORTUGUESE MAN OF WAR IF YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED PROPER TRAINING.  Photo Credit: mermaidcottages.com

The Natural World:  First off, what is it you're holding in the picture above?

Dr. Joe:  It's a Portuguese Man of War.  They sting real bad.  They are more of an open water, tropical species, but they float (I'm holding it by the float) so they go wherever the wind blows them. We don't get many on Tybee Island, but on some Florida beaches they can be a real problem.

TNW: Didn't you guys find another one pretty recently on one of your Ecology Tours?

Dr. Joe: Yes, within this past week. We found two of them washed ashore during one of my Tybee Beach Ecology Trips. I sure didn't expect to see them; but most anything is likely to wash ashore.

A picture of this weeks Portuguese Man of War.

TNW:  In a recent post, I discussed the North American eel. I was wondering whether you have any pictures or stories regarding the eel that you'd like to share!

Dr. Joe:  I don't have any pictures of the American eel; but my experience with them is that I always hated to catch one when fishing because they were so slimey.  And they would invariably wrap themselves around the rig and line so they were a mess to get unhooked.  The slime was also thick and would stay on the line even after you got them off.  Many years ago, while in college, I worked one summer in North Carolina on a shrimp boat and was involved in a few research projects on the side.  One involved developing eel traps to be used for catching eels in the inshore waters.  They were trying to create a business opportunity for catching eels, then somehow shocking them so they would die straight before flash freezing them.  By being straight, they could pack more of them in boxes than if they were all curvy.

The North American eel.  Photo Credit: cbf.typepad.com

TNW: I also found that the eel spawns in the Sargasso Sea, and I recall you talking about all of the Sargassum seaweed washing up on shore when we went with you on the tour several years ago.  What can you tell me about this type of seaweed?

Dr. Joe:  This species of Sargassum (a brown seaweed) is unlike most seaweeds, that have to grow attached to a hard bottom or structure in shallow water where they get enough light to do photosynthesis. This Sargassum actually grows unattached, floating in open water, generally well out in the Atlantic Ocean. In fact some charts refer to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as the “Sargasso Sea” because there is lots of it floating around out there. The small berry-looking structures on the Sargassum are actually air floats that keep it floating near the surface. Clumps of Sargassum in the open ocean serve as places to hide for some animals and as structure for some small animals to attach on to. During late June, we found lots of those small animals (Sargassum shrimp, Sargassum Swimming crabs, small file fish, baby flying fish) on the beach and in tide pools because they have washed in with the seaweed clumps. All these animals are yellow-orange in order to camouflage or blend in with the seaweed. So the Sargassum has brought with it lots of interesting animals from far offshore, that we normally don’t see on our beach.

Pile of Sargassum seaweed along the high tide line at North Beach.

The berry-like structures on the Sargassum are actually air floats that keep the seaweed at the sun-lit surface.   

Sargassum shrimp (this one carrying eggs under her abdomen) were abundant in some of the clumps of seaweed.

This was one of many Sargassum swimming crabs that were common for a few days on Tybee's ocean beach. 

Small filefish with camouflage colors matching the seaweed were found among many of the Sargassum clumps. 

Although only about an inch long, what appears to be a baby flying fish was another type of fish found among the drifting seaweed.

TNW: Besides the eels and the other small animals you mentioned above, what other animals live in the Sargassum?

Dr. Joe: The floating clumps of Sargassum in the open ocean also serve as places to hide for small young animals that will eventually become larger as they age and grow. When the baby Loggerhead Sea Turtles hatch on Tybee’s beach later this summer, they will head out to sea, and many will hide among clumps of floating Sargassum far offshore. Many years ago, while on a research cruise offshore, we anchored overnight and found ourselves among a large area of floating Sargassum. Being curious scientists, we used some long dip nets to catch some clumps of the floating seaweed to see what sort of animals were among it. This was how I caught the only Sailfish I’ve ever caught!

Baby sailfish hide among the floating clumps of Sargassum far offshore.

TNW:  Do you know why Tybee was inundated with Sargassum when we visited in the summer of 2012?

Dr. Joe: I don’t recall our having a prolonged period of strong winds from the east, so I don’t think it was necessarily a wind-blown event. Instead, I’ve got a different hypothesis. The Gulf Stream current flows from the south toward the north well offshore of Georgia’s coast. It doesn’t flow in a straight line, but meanders a lot. Sometimes those meanders can be almost like huge hair-pin curves, and sometimes those big meanders, like loops, can break off and form large circular or oval water masses of warm off-shore water. If such a large ring of Gulf Stream and warm Atlantic Ocean water (and possibly water that recently had been in the tropics) happened to break off on our side of the Gulf Stream, it could gradually move toward our coast, and bring with it things like Sargassum. This is my guess: one of these offshore water masses, with its floating Sargassum, broke off and had moved into our coastal waters.

Laying among a pile of Sargassum seaweed along the high tide line was this lumber that had been drifting offshore long enough for these Goose-neck Barnacles to settle and grow. This species of barnacle only grows on drifting, open-water objects.

TNW:  What other ecological or biological effects did this inundation of Sargassum have on the coastline?

Dr. Joe:  Since the Sargassum seaweed event on Tybee, I’d been noticing (almost daily while conducting my Tybee Beach Ecology Trips) additional tropical and offshore species of animals. There was a group of Sargent Majors, a small black and white striped damsel fish that is common around coral reefs and rocky shorelines in the Caribbean and Florida Keys. They don’t belong this far north. We also got a Ballyhoo, a strange looking fish with a long extended lower jaw; and they usually live offshore where they are food for large gamefish like sailfish, marlins and dolphins.  So I’ve got a feeling that the Sargassum and all these other interesting tropical and offshore animals are signs that Tybee had been the landfall of a large warm water, open-ocean water mass. It sure made beach ecology on Tybee interesting this spring and summer!!

Small Sargent Major damselfish, common on coral reefs and tropical rocky shorelines, have shown up on Tybee in the last week. 

We've been seeing Ballyhoo in the beachwater, but they normally live in warm offshore open waters.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Joe for taking the time out of his schedule to chat with me for a bit about these fascinating animals, and the importance of the Sargassum!  I look forward to hearing more from you in the future, but in the meantime, make sure you like the Facebook page for his Tybee Beach Ecology Tours by clicking HERE, and make sure you check out his website HERE.

Unless otherwise noted, the photo credit for all of the pictures in this post goes to Dr. Joe Richardson.

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