We are familiar with Wolves hunting Elk, Deer, Caribou, Moose and Bison,,,,,,,,,,,,,,We also know that where Beaver are plentiful, Wolves are adept at making them a meal as well................But when it comes to catching Salmon and Sea Otters, your thoughts go more to Grizzly Bears................Yet, along Alaska's Pacific coast, Wolves are very much adept fishermen and Otter trappers................Two great pictures of an "Otter Hunter" and an outstanding vidaeo of a Wolf chasing and scooping up a Salmon--as adept a fisherman as any Wild Cat or Bear, anywhere, anytime!

CLICK LINK TO VIEW A WOLF IN ALASKA GO FISHING FOR SALMON!

https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/predator-vs-prey/where-land-meets-sea-alaskas-wolves-sometimes-eat-otters/

Where land meets sea, Alaska's wolves sometimes eat otters

Where land meets sea, Alaska's wolves sometimes eat otters

BY SARAH KEARTES MAY 29 2016

Katmai National Park is one of the most pristine wildlife preserves in North America. Located along Alaska's Pacific coast, it's home to over 1,000 different species – and amidst all that biodiversity, you'll sometimes find unusual relationships between predator and prey.

For ranger Kaitlyn Kunce, one such discovery came during a recent marine debris survey in the park, when she and her co-workers stumbled across a grey wolf carrying its catch – and the meal choice was one they'd never encountered before. Clutched between the wolf's jaws was a young sea otter pup.

"The wolf travelled along the beach carrying the otter far from the water line. It passed by us, took one glance back, then continued on," recalls Kunce. "A predator of the land with a predator of the sea. Little is known about the relationship between wolves and otters, but we saw a small glimpse of it."

We've long recognised that the wolf population of the Pacific Northwest region has a unique relationship with the ocean. Each summer, Katmai’s waters fill with salmon returning from the ocean to spawn, and for the local canids, it's a seafood snack that's just a dive away. Herring eggs are also a common rotation at mealtime. 

But for Kunce, seeing an otter-eating wolf was something new. 

Over the past several years, anecdotal reports and scat evidence of wolf-otter predations have left scientists with more questions than answers. Were they actively hunting, or simply scavenging the occasional washed-up carcass? In the case of Kunce's sighting, the wolf's underfur was wet to the shoulders, indicating that the animal had at least ventured into the shallows to retrieve its unusual meal.

Sea otters typically inhabit coastal waters where their favourite foods – invertebrates like abalone and urchins – are most plentiful, but they do occasionally come ashore to rest. Pups stay with their mothers for nearly a full year, and female otters will often aggressively defend their young in the face of danger.

It's possible that this young pup was sick or injured, or perhaps it had become separated from its mother before the wolf found it.

When it comes to salmon, however, we know that the wolves are not simply scavenging fish carcasses. Alaska Fish and Game biologist Dave Person has been monitoring packs catching, killing and eating salmon in the area over the past five years. "They’re not as skilful as bears at fishing,” he says. "Most of the fishing takes place when the tide is low, on the flats where streams are crossing through the intertidal zone.

WOLF CATCHING A FISH IN ALASKA VIDEO LINK BELOW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYuQv0UysVw

The otter-eating encounter might be unusual, but it's also an encouraging sign. Until ten years ago, spotting an Alaskan wolf in the wild was an extraordinarily difficult feat, so the presence of active wolves here is a great testament to the overall health of the Katmai ecosystem. 

Early in the last century, Alaska's wolves were hunted with virtually no controls, and bounties were commonplace. Well into the 1970s, misguided control policies aimed at increasing game populations took a heavy toll. Trapping, poisoning and aerial gunning hobbled the region's largest packs, and it took some thirty years for these predators to bounce back.

Today, wolf and other top-predator control measures continue to be a heavily debated topic in the state, but thanks to a strong focus on reducing conflicts with farmers and hunters, Alaska is now one of the largest wolf strongholds in the US. Estimates put the population at 7,000 to 12,000, and park officials are determined to keep it that way.

The National Park Service has set up a system of remote cameras throughout Katmai in the hope of learning more about predator-prey interactions like this one. "This isn’t the only relationship between terrestrial and marine wildlife we don’t know enough about," explains Kunce, adding that evidence suggests local bears could also be preying on marine mammals.

"Maybe we will see a bear catch an otter or seal," she says. "Maybe we will see more, maybe a wolf catching an otter, or maybe another first.

If you live East of the Mississippi River and have weather that brings snow during the Winter, you know I am so spot on when I say that the brilliant red Cardinal and the striking blue Jay are sights to behold over snow-covered field and forest...................But what makes the Jay blue and the Cardinal red?.............."In the case of the Cardinal, the important ingredient is a pigment, a molecule that absorbs some colors and reflects others"...... "A red pigment molecule will absorb the blues, greens and yellows so that only the red is reflected back to your eyes"............"The color of the blue jay comes from the architecture of the protein (keratin) that its feathers are made from".............. "The outer layer of keratin is full of tiny air pockets, and as light waves flood in, they bounce off the boundaries between air and protein"........... "The critical part of this architecture is the spacing of the pockets in the protein"............. "They are structured so that a red light wave, which is relatively long, can bounce off, overlap with another red wave that bounced off another pocket and, through this encounter, get canceled out"............ "The same happens for yellows and greens"............... "But blue light has a much shorter wavelength, and the pocket spacing means that when a blue wave meets another scattered blue wave, they line up, reinforcing each other"........... "Blue light is the only color that escapes intact, and so this spongelike protein structure is how the blue jay earns its name"

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-very-different-ways-cardinals-and-blue-jays-get-their-hues-1511284822

•  EVERYDAY PHYSICS

The Very Different Ways Cardinals and Blue Jays Get Their Hues

What makes cardinals red and blue jays blue? Helen Czerski on the hidden science of nature’s ways of making color

By

Helen Czerski

Nov. 21, 2017 

While doing oceanographic research in Rhode Island a few years back, I spent hours watching the endless feathered soap opera on my garden bird feeder. My favorite in the cast was the male northern cardinal because of its stunningly vivid red color, topped off with a jaunty crest. The large and noisy villain, a blue jay, would tip every other bird off the feeder and squawk at any rival who didn’t take the hint.

The jay’s bright blue plumage made it easy to forgive. I was enchanted by the color, because where I grew up in northwest England, all birds seemed to be either brown or brownish-beige. As a scientist, it was also striking to me that these two birds were flaunting two totally different ways of making color.

A child with a paintbox will simply dip a paintbrush into the right color and transfer it onto something else. The male northern cardinal does something similar. The important ingredient is a pigment, a molecule that absorbs some colors and reflects others. A red pigment molecule will absorb the blues, greens and yellows so that only the red is reflected back to your eyes. The absorption happens because of the structure of the molecule.

The cardinals use pigments called carotenoids, which are common in many leaves and seeds and tend to be reds, oranges and yellows. I find it fascinating that the birds can’t make these pigments—no animal can. But plenty of plants make them, and so animals get the pigments from their diet. A cardinal is a living splash of paint—the bird has just transferred the right pigment into its feathers, and now it’s red.

But pigments never turn a bird blue. The color of the blue jay comes from the architecture of the protein (keratin) that its feathers are made from. The outer layer of keratin is full of tiny air pockets, and as light waves flood in, they bounce off the boundaries between air and protein.

The critical part of this architecture is the spacing of the pockets in the protein. They are structured so that a red light wave, which is relatively long, can bounce off, overlap with another red wave that bounced off another pocket and, through this encounter, get canceled out. The same happens for yellows and greens.

But blue light has a much shorter wavelength, and the pocket spacing means that when a blue wave meets another scattered blue wave, they line up, reinforcing each other. Blue light is the only color that escapes intact, and so this spongelike protein structure is how the blue jay earns its name.

This is called structural color, and it exists because of the way a nanoscale texture like these keratin pockets interferes with light waves. We’re most familiar with this phenomenon as iridescence, when light reflects off many thin layers to produce shimmering colors, depending on the direction from which you look, like a peacock feather or the surface of a CD.

Green parrots, snakes and frogs use both the pigment and structural methods at the same time. Their green is a mixture of blue structural color and a yellow pigment, which is why sometimes you’ll see a dead snake that looks blue. The chemical pigment has broken down as part of the decomposition process, but the nano-size architecture is untouched, leaving only blue.The trick of a blue feather is that while the air pockets don’t have a perfectly regular arrangement—they’re slightly jumbled—the average spacing is the same in all directions. So the feather looks blue from every angle.

So two plots were proceeding on my avian stage. While the squawking and squabbling determined which birds got the seed, a much calmer process at the very tiniest size scale was selecting the colors that nature uses to tell their story.

While being challenged in the Courts, will the de-listing of Grizzly Bears in the Greater Yellowstone Wyoming region,,,,,,,,,,,,and ultimately Idaho and Montana, doom the bears to liberal trophy hunting provisions?............Watch some excellent videos, evaluate some revealing population maps and graphs and a read a full accounting of the current state of Grizzly management in their current Rocky Mountain territory by clicking on the link below.............Thanks to ecologist/activist George Wuerthner for providing this article.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/environment/grizzly-bear-population-spreads/?utm_term=.fb7fa673aa31

Biologists and their maps agree: GRIZZLY BEARS are coming to southwestern Montana

 WISDOM, Mont. — Dean Peterson, a rangy fourth-generation rancher with a handlebar mustache, is used to factoring in all sorts of challenges as he works his vast spread in the Big Hole Valley. Summer wildfires that can sweep down the pine-blanketed mountains to the west, harsh winters that can endanger his thousand-plus head of cattle.

Yet in the back of his mind these days is
a threat most of his forefathers 

never faced: grizzly bears. Settlers pushing
 West had all but exterminated

 the hulking predators by the time
Peterson’s great-grandfather arrived 

here in the late 1800s.

A year ago, however, a trail camera
 in the nearby forest snapped a grainy

 photo of a grizzly crossing a stream,
marking the first confirmed sighting

 in the valley in a century. Then in
May, Peterson was stunned to see one 

lope across a snow-dusted road as
 he drove a four-wheeler a few miles

 from his property.

BELOW IN DARK BROWN IS 2017
 CURRENT DAY GRIZZLY HABITAT 

AND IN YELLOW IS THE HISTORIC
RANGE OF THE GRIZZLY PRE 

EUROPEAN CONTACT:  A.D. 1500

Todays Post should genererate a grin or giggle from all of you................ I was interested to learn that during cold Winter nights, turtles(as cold-blooded reptiles) are able to breathe through their butts submerged in near freezing water that is capped by ice..............."As an ectotherm – an animal that relies on an external source of heat – a turtle's body temperature tracks that of its environment"............. "If the pond water is 1℃, so is the turtle's body"......Water acts as a temperature buffer; it has a high specific heat, which means it takes a lot of energy to change water temperature. Pond water temperatures remain quite stable over the winter and an ectotherm sitting in that water will have a similarly stable body temperature"............. "Air, on the other hand, has a low specific heat so as temperatures fluctuates on land,, freezing conditions makes it too cold for turtle survival"................."For humans, a change in body temperature is a sign of illness, that something is wrong"....... "When a turtle's body temperature changes, it's simply because the environment has become warmer or colder."............."When turtles hibernate, they rely on stored energy and uptake oxygen from the pond water by moving it across body surfaces that are flush with blood vessels"............... "In this way, they can get enough oxygen to support their minimal needs without using their lung".......... "And turtles have one area that is especially well vascularised: their butts"........."The technical term is cloacal respiration"

https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/how-it-works/the-secret-to-turtle-hibernation-butt-breathing

The secret to turtle hibernation: Butt-breathing

The secret to turtle hibernation: Butt-breathing

BY EARTH TOUCH NEWS NOVEMBER 24 2017; Jacqueline Litzgus, Professor, Department of Biology, Laurentian University

To breathe or not to breathe, that is the question.

What would happen if you were submerged in a pond where the water temperature hovered just above freezing and the surface was capped by a lid of ice for 100 days?

Well, obviously you'd die.

And that's because you're not as cool as a turtle. And by cool I don't just mean amazing, I mean literally cool, as in cold. Plus, you can't breathe through your butt.

But turtles can, which is just one of the many reasons that turtles are truly awesome.

Cold weather slow down

As an ectotherm – an animal that relies on an external source of heat – a turtle's body temperature tracks that of its environment. If the pond water is 1℃, so is the turtle's body.

But turtles have lungs and they breathe air. So, how is it possible for them to survive in a frigid pond with a lid of ice that prevents them from coming up for air? The answer lies in the relationship between body temperature and metabolism.

A cold turtle in cold water has a slow metabolism. The colder it gets, the slower its metabolism, which translates into lower energy and oxygen demands.

When turtles hibernate, they rely on stored energy and uptake oxygen from the pond water by moving it across body surfaces that are flush with blood vessels. In this way, they can get enough oxygen to support their minimal needs without using their lungs. And turtles have one area that is especially well vascularised: their butts.

See, I wasn't kidding, turtles really can breathe through their butts. (The technical term is cloacal respiration.)

Not frozen, just cold

We are not turtles. We are endotherms – expensive metabolic heat furnaces – that need to constantly fuel our bodies with food to generate body heat and maintain a constant temperature to stay alive and well.

X marks the spot. Former graduate student Bill Greaves tracks turtles during a cold Ontario winter. Image: Author provided

When it’s cold out, we pile on clothes to trap metabolic heat and stay warm. We could never pick up enough oxygen across our vascularised surfaces, other than our lungs, to supply the high demand of our metabolic furnaces.

For humans, a change in body temperature is a sign of illness, that something is wrong. When a turtle's body temperature changes, it's simply because the environment has become warmer or colder.

But even ectotherms have their limits. With very few exceptions (e.g., box turtles), adult turtles cannot survive freezing temperatures; they cannot survive having ice crystals in their bodies. This is why freshwater turtles hibernate in water, where their body temperatures remain relatively stable and will not go below freezing.

Water acts as a temperature buffer; it has a high specific heat, which means it takes a lot of energy to change water temperature. Pond water temperatures remain quite stable over the winter and an ectotherm sitting in that water will have a similarly stable body temperature. Air, on the other hand, has a low specific heat so its temperature fluctuates, and gets too cold for turtle survival.

Crampy muscles

An ice-covered pond presents two problems for turtles: they can't surface to take a breath, and little new oxygen gets into the water. On top of that, there are other critters in the pond consuming the oxygen that was produced by aquatic plants during the summer.

Turtles will bask in the sun to warm up and ease their crampy muscles. Image: Patrick Moldowan, author provided

Over the winter, as the oxygen is used up, the pond becomes hypoxic (low oxygen content) or anoxic (depleted of oxygen). Some turtles can handle water with low oxygen content – others cannot.

Snapping turtles and painted turtles tolerate this stressful situation by switching their metabolism to one that doesn't require oxygen. This ability is amazing, but can be dangerous, even lethal, if it goes on for too long, because acids build up in their tissues as a result of this metabolic switch.

But how long is "too long"? Both snapping turtles and painted turtles can survive forced submergence at cold water temperatures in the lab for well over 100 days. Painted turtles are the kings of anoxia-tolerance. They mobilise calcium from their shells to neutralise the acid, in much the same way we take calcium-containing antacids for heartburn.

In the spring, when anaerobic turtles emerge from hibernation, they are basically one big muscle cramp. It's like when you go for a hard run – your body switches to anaerobic metabolism, lactic acid builds up and you get a cramp. The turtles are desperate to bask in the sun to increase their body temperature, to fire up their metabolism and eliminate these acidic by-products.

And it's hard to move when they're that crampy, making them vulnerable to predators and other hazards. Spring emergence can be a dangerous time for these lethargic turtles.

old weather turtle tracking

Field biologists tend to do their research during the spring and summer, when animals are most active. But in Ontario, Canada, where the winters are long, many turtle species are inactive for half of their lives.

Understanding what they do and need during winter is essential to their conservation and habitat protection, especially given that two-thirds of turtle species are at risk of extinction.

We attach tiny devices to the turtles' shells that measure temperature and allow us to follow them under the ice.

We've found that all species choose to hibernate in wetland locations that hover just above freezing, that they move around under the ice, hibernate in groups and return to the same places winter after winter.

Despite all this work, we still know so little about this part of turtles' lives.

So, I do what any committed biologist would do: I send my students out to do field research at -25℃. We are not restricted to fair-weather biology here.

Besides, there is unparalleled beauty in a Canadian winter landscape, especially when you envision all of those awesome turtles beneath the ice, breathing through their butts.

"During Black Bear breeding season in the southeast which runs from May through August, the CANDID CRITTERS CAMERA-TRAPPING PROJECT– a joint venture of several institutions and agencies that enlists authorised citizen-scientists to gather wildlife images across North Carolina – turned up a dynamic sequence of photos showing the ferocity of the combat that takes place between male bears",,,,,,,,,,,Excellent video to watch as you click on the link below

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO WATCH MALE BLACK BEARS BRAWLING

https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/animal-behaviour/brawling-black-bears-caught-on-film-in-the-north-carolina-night

Brawling black bears caught on film in the North Carolina night

Brawling black bears caught on film in the North Carolina night

BY Ethan Shaw, NOVEMBER 16 2017(all Images below-: Candid Critters/eMammal)

A camera-trap image of wildlife is inherently a bit thrilling: after all, it's taken by the critter itself and depicts a moment remote (when it happens) from human observation. That's true whether the animal is a rare species or an "everyday" (but still awesome, mind you) one, and it's true even if the image simply shows a walk-by down a game trail, as is so often the case.

But sometimes, thanks to a well-placed bit of camera gear, an unknowingly cooperative animal and a good sprinkling of serendipity, we get to witness intriguing behaviour that would otherwise have gone down unnoticed in some anonymous wild corner.

Here's a case in point. This past summer, the Candid Critters camera-trapping project – a joint venture of several institutions and agencies that enlists authorised citizen-scientists to gather wildlife images across North Carolina – turned up a dynamic sequence of photos. Taken just after midnight on August 30 in Hyde County in the state's far east, the snapshots show a pair of black bears in a high-powered tussle: all grappling paws and flashing teeth. You can almost hear the husky growls, muffled swats and thumping duff.

It's not at all uncommon for male black bears (boars) to fight during the breeding season, which can extend from late May through early August in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission's black bear and furbearer biologist, Colleen Olfenbuttel. Bears ranging about in a quest for receptive females (sows) may clash with rivals they come across, and old males sometimes carry the scars and tattered ears of many seasons of breeding-related pugilism.

Olfenbuttel also noted via email that adult bears sometimes brawl outside the breeding season when contesting a particularly prized food source.

Such genuine fights can be violent and protracted, with sumo-style bracing, shuddering slaps of big, clawed paws, and wicked tugging bites to ears, jowls and neck. (Thick fur and a loose, fatty hide offer good defence against an opponent's jaws.) Consider this bear battle filmed in the New Jersey suburbs:

That being said, Olfenbuttel reckons the wrestling match photographed this past summer by the Candid Critters project was on the lighter side of the spectrum.

"These pictures were taken after the breeding season," she told us. "These are either unrelated subadults or siblings that are play-fighting, though even with play-fighting, a bear can get injured, as this 'play' is practice for when they get older."

Play-fighting is one of the main social interactions younger black bears engage in. One 1970s study that observed both captive and free-ranging bears noted that play-fights sometimes intensified into more serious affairs when one of the combatants flattened its ears: an aggressive signal contrasting with the erect ears of a more playful animal. Such a move "frequently leads to a quick termination of the social play sequence". (As with people, in other words, it's wise to pay attention to body language – and to call the game off when things are getting a little too "real".)

Candid Critters derives from a partnership between North Carolina State University, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, the State Library of North Carolina, NC Cardinal, the Public Libraries of North Carolina and the Smithsonian.

Dr Stephanie Schuttler of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, who helped spotlight the photos of the battling black bears on social media, assists with the Candid Critters programme, including in the many North Carolina schools that participate. She noted the bear fight wasn't the only out-of-the-ordinary phenomenon lately captured by Candid Critters lenses. In late October, a camera trap in Currituck County photographed head-on an arresting white-tailed deer buck with unusually vertical antlers and dark legs:

Pumas(Mountain lions/Cougars/Catamounts/Panthers) are ambush predators, the same as your house cat............Unlike Wolves, Coyotes and Foxes that will chase(known as Coursing predators) down their quarry, the Puma stalks and then waits for the most opportune moment to strike at ligntening speed...............Most studies have Pumas successful around 20% of the time they attack an Elk.............80% of the time (as in the two videos below-click link to watch) the Puma "swings and misses its quarry= strike 3".........By way of comparison, Siberian Tigers only "hit it out the park" 5% of the time with African Lions batting at roughly the same 20% as our American Pumas...............Not easy making a living in the wild...............Pumas average a deer or Elk kill once every 9 to 12 days, caching their kill and consuming it over the 0-12 day span

CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO WATCH TWO VIDEOS OF PUMAS STALKING
ELK------------AND NOT MAKING A KILL

https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/predator-vs-prey/watch-mountain-lion-stalks-bull-elk-in-montana

Watch: Mountain lion stalks bull elk in Montana

Watch: Mountain lion stalks bull elk in Montana

BY ETHAN SHAW NOVEMBER 16 2017

It was only recently that we featured some dynamite pics from south-central British Columbia showing a puma killing a mule deer, but spotting a mountain lion in predatory performance is far from commonplace. Heck, spotting a mountain lion at all isn't easy: the odd backyard visit notwithstanding, these tawny, ropey big cats – the second-largest felids in the Western Hemisphere after the jaguar – are famously phantom-like, and many human residents of cougar country go a lifetime without seeing one.

We don't know the outcome of this Montana stalk: the YouTuber who posted the video, Montana Sportsman, wrote, "Unfortunately, the cat pushed the elk further onto private property and we never got the chance to see them again."

The bulls – one with a significantly bigger antler rack than the other – appear edgy throughout the encounter, staring in the general direction of the puma and ultimately bolting into the timber. Conditions look on the breezy side, so it's quite possible the elk had scented the creeping cat.

Pumas avidly pursue elk across western North America; along with deer, these animals are the big cats' favoured prey in many areas. Mature bull elk, however, are challenging targets. Along with the occasional adult moose, they occupy the uppermost end of the puma prey spectrum, and research suggests large male pumas, or toms, are more likely to attack them than female and subadult cats. (Toms in general seem to hunt elk more frequently than female pumas regardless of age/size class; females, in turn, go after deer more intensively.)

In a classic study of puma predation in central Idaho, Maurice Hornocker suggested a bull's size was one complicating factor for a hungry puma, but, given that some cow elk reach the proportions of younger bulls and are nonetheless readily preyed upon, the hefty tined antlers of a full-grown male elk (a "branch bull") also probably play a role: "Lions must attack the head region of elk to kill them effectively," Hornocker wrote, "and the heavy antlers may be recognised as formidable weapons."

This time of year, bull elk are just past the significant rigours of the rut – an exhausting season for many of them, as they're constantly occupied holding harems of cows, mating, driving off sneaky rivals trying to dart in for some action, and actively fighting other males – and they're looking to restore at least some of their energy reserves ahead of a tough winter. In this diminished condition – and, for that matter, in their distracted state during the breeding season – bulls may be more vulnerable to predation by pumas, as well as wolves and grizzly bears. One study from northeastern Oregon found that most kills of bull elk by pumas (which, again, were primarily toms) took place during or just after the rut.

So who knows whether this puma might have been able to land one of these formidably proportioned elk? In the video, the hunters can be heard speculating the cat might be targeting the smaller-racked, and possibly younger, bull.

Regardless of how this turned out, it seems clear the puma was slinking near enough to assess its chances. In Hornocker's study, he observed an interesting and possibly relevant situation involving a 68-kilogram (151lb) tom puma and several bull elk: "This lion stalked three six-point bulls until he was apparently within attacking distance. He then retreated, circled the three bulls, stalked and killed a yearling bull within 150 yards of the others."

So was the Pilgrim Thanksgiving with the Wampanoag Indians in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621 the first American Thanksgiving or was it really in 1564, in present day Jacksonville, Florida where French Huguenots celebrated with the Timucua Indians?...........Does it really matter?...........More importantly, I was curious about what foodstuffs from forest, field, stream, and ocean were really consumed at both of these historical Thanksgivings?......."Deer, fowl(ducks or Wild Turkeys), onions, beans, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, carrots and cornmeal, peas, gooseberries, raspberries, cranberries, mussels, lobster, clams, oysters, pumpkins and squash likely filled the New England version of Thanksgiving with items such as alligator, black bear and tortoise included in the Florida version".........."Modern Thanksgiving celebrations date back to around the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation setting a specific day for our national day of thanks" ........."Unlike the family day it is today, in the 1800's, folks of little means, especially the men, escaped from their families for a day of rule breaking and spontaneous mirth"......... "It wasn’t all fun and games, either: Drunken men and boys, often masked, paraded from house to house and demanded to be treated"........ “Boys misbehaved and men committed physical assaults on Thanksgiving as well as on Christmas"........... "From this culture of “misrule” came the 'Fantastics', a group of pranksters, often dressed as women, who would parade good naturedly through the streets"........... “The 'Fantastics' paraded in rural and urban areas of eastern and central Pennsylvania and New York City on Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve and Day, Battalion Day, Washington’s Birthday and the fourth of July"....... "Unlike the loose groups of boys and men who middle and upper-class people had previously feared on Thanksgiving day, 'Fantastical' parades were regarded as good fun"..........."These parades were an American variation on an ancient European theme--the charivari, or the 'world-turned-upside-down celebration' which for many, was a way to thumb your nose at the propertied ane the elite".............I always am amazed at how so much American history is not revealed to us during our school years.............Fun to finally know the the true origens and goings-on of this unique and teriffic American holiday.........All of you relax, have your fill of food and drink, kick back and have a blast!

http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/first-thanksgiving-meal

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/first-thanksgiving-parades-were-riots-180967256/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/pilgrims-werent-first-celebrate-thanksgiving-180967310/

http://www.history.com/news/did-florida-host-the-first-thanksgiving

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwivg5DzyNPXAhUhxoMKHbMKBLgQFggoMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-srv%2FWPcap%2F1999-11%2F25%2F078r-112599-idx.html&usg=AOvVaw33aBJc2x8WIgsOh-GOWb0b

BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THANKSGIVING
by-The History Channel

For many Americans, the Thanksgiving meal includes seasonal dishes such as roast turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. The holiday feast dates back to November 1621, when the newly arrived Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians gathered at Plymouth for an autumn harvest celebration, an event regarded as America’s “first Thanksgiving.” But what was really on the menu at the famous banquet, and which of today’s time-honored favorites didn’t earn a place at the table until later in the holiday’s 400-year history?

TURKEY

While no records exist of the exact bill of fare, the Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow noted in his journal that the colony’s governor, William Bradford, sent four men on a “fowling” mission in preparation for the three-day event. Wild—but not domestic—turkey was indeed plentiful in the region and a common food source for both English settlers and Native Americans. But it is just as likely that the fowling party returned with other birds we know the colonists regularly consumed, such as ducks, geese and swans. Instead of bread-based stuffing, herbs, onions or nuts might have been added to the birds for extra flavor.

Turkey or no turkey, the first Thanksgiving’s attendees almost certainly got their fill of meat. Winslow wrote that the Wampanoag guests arrived with an offering of five deer. Culinary historians speculate that the deer was roasted on a spit over a smoldering fire and that the colonists might have used some of the venison to whip up a hearty stew.

Thanksgiving in the 19th century was less Norman Rockwell, more Mardi Gras. (By James E. Taylor [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

The 1621 Thanksgiving celebration marked the Pilgrims’ first autumn harvest, so it is likely that the colonists feasted on the bounty they had reaped with the help of their Native American neighbors. Local vegetables that likely appeared on the table include onions, beans, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, carrots and perhaps peas. Corn, which records show was plentiful at the first harvest, might also have been served, but not in the way most people enjoy it now. In those days, the corn would have been removed from the cob and turned into cornmeal, which was then boiled and pounded into a thick corn mush or porridge that was occasionally sweetened with molasses.

children in costume for Thanksgiving sometime in the early 1910s (Bain News Service/Library of Congress)

gooseberries, raspberries and, of course cranberries, which Native Americans ate and used as a natural dye. The Pilgrims might have been familiar with cranberries by the first Thanksgiving, but they wouldn’t have made sauces and relishes with the tart orbs. That’s because the sacks of sugar that traveled across the Atlantic on the Mayflower were nearly or fully depleted by November 1621. Cooks didn’t begin boiling cranberries with sugar and using the mixture as an accompaniment for meats until about 50 years later.

St. Augustine, Florida. (Credit: RussDuparcq/iStockphoto.com)

FISH AND SHELLFISH

Culinary historians believe that much of the Thanksgiving meal consisted of seafood, which is often absent from today’s menus. Mussels in particular were abundant in New England and could be easily harvested because they clung to rocks along the shoreline. The colonists occasionally served mussels with curds, a dairy product with a similar consistency to cottage cheese. Lobster, bass, clams and oysters might also have been part of the feast.

POTATOES

Whether mashed or roasted, white or sweet, potatoes had no place at the first Thanksgiving. After encountering it in its native South America, the Spanish began introducing the potato to Europeans around 1570. But by the time the Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower, the tuber had neither doubled back to North America nor become popular enough with the English to hitch a ride. New England’s native inhabitants are known to have eaten other plant roots such as Indian turnips and groundnuts, which they may or may not have brought to the party.

PUMPKIN PIE

Both the Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag tribe ate pumpkins and other squashes indigenous to New England—possibly even during the harvest festival—but the fledgling colony lacked the butter and wheat flour necessary for making pie crust. Moreover, settlers hadn’t yet constructed an oven for baking. According to some accounts, early English settlers in North America improvised by hollowing out pumpkins, filling the shells with milk, honey and spices to make a custard, then roasting the gourds whole in hot ashes.

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Let Us Give Pranks: The Holiday's Irreverent Past

By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 25, 1999

Ah, the pleasures of the traditional Thanksgiving--the turkey, the cranberries, the cross-dressing, the begging, the disrupting of Broadway shows . . .

Wait a minute. Cross-dressing? Disrupting Broadway shows? When did these activities become part of the traditional Thanksgiving experience?

Shortly after the American Revolution, says Elizabeth Pleck, professor of history at the University of Illinois and author of the forthcoming book "Celebrating the Family," which traces the history of American holidays. "Rowdiness was a part of the celebration," says Pleck. "There was a lot of drunken male behavior related to holiday times. We're not used to thinking of that in association with Thanksgiving, which has been purged of that sort of thing."

Indeed, Thanksgiving is a sedate domestic holiday these days, a cozy celebration of family and food. In rural New England, where it originated three centuries ago, Thanksgiving was traditionally a quiet day--a morning church service followed by a family feast.

But there's another, more raucous Thanksgiving tradition. From the Revolution through the early days of this century, working-class men in New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere celebrated the holiday by parading through the streets, sometimes in blackface or in drag, sometimes clad in costumes that parodied prominent rich people. Which was, in fact, the same way they celebrated many other holidays, including Christmas and the Fourth of July.

"Getting up in women's clothing was a standard part of a lot of festive occasions," Pleck says. "They were making fun of gender conventions. It was part of saying, 'We're flouting all the conventions here. We're making fun of everything.' "

These parades were an American variation on an ancient European theme--the charivari, or the "world-turned-upside-down celebration," says Josh Brown, director of the American Social History Project at the City University of New York. "Doing that stuff on Thanksgiving," Brown says, "was to some extent thumbing your nose at the propertied."

In New York, the parades were known as "Fantastics" and they got quite elaborate. In the late 1800s, immigrant Irish Catholic policemen and politicians joined the fun. In those days, Catholics regarded the standard Thanksgiving as a Protestant holiday, Pleck says, so they felt free to celebrate their own way, which included the Fantastics.

"These were real processions, with some men on horseback and men in carts and men in drag," she says. "They would march through New York and they would end up in the park, where there would be a rowdy, drunken picnic."

Even then, traditional American family values prevailed, and these rowdy men were joined in their holiday bacchanal by their wives, who catered the drunken picnics, and by their children, who dressed in rags and masks and followed behind the Fantastics with their own "Ragamuffin Parade," blowing horns and begging coins from spectators.

"Once the parade ended, they'd go to the homes of the rich and go begging," Pleck says. "They'd do a performance of some kind and they'd expect to get food and coins. If they didn't, they'd respond with some sort of disorderly act--defacing property or overturning the outhouse."

The sons of the rich observed this revelry with a hint of envy. It seemed like a lot more fun than a morning church service followed by an afternoon of roast turkey with Mom and Dad and maiden Aunt Edna. So they created their own variety of Thanksgiving rowdiness. It began in the 1870s and revolved around college football.

In those days, the final game of the collegiate season was held on Thanksgiving and the Ivy League championship was played at the Polo Grounds in New York. Hordes of college lads descended on Manhattan to drink, cheer their teams on, and then celebrate (or drown their sorrows) by drinking some more. After that, they'd head for the Broadway shows, where they exhibited their lusty affection for the showgirls by throwing stuff at the stage.

"There would be a musical number and they'd start shouting and throwing things and breaking things," Pleck says, "and the managers of these theaters would call the police."

Ah, life sure was fun in those days!

But all good things come to an end. In the 1890s--a period of labor unrest and social upheaval--the middle class lost its tolerance for street rowdiness. Ministers denounced football as a desecration of the national feast day. In 1894 the Ivy League presidents, embarrassed at the behavior of their students, shifted the season-ending game to the Saturday before Thanksgiving and moved it back to campus.

Meanwhile, the New York Times was denouncing the Fantastics parade as a "public nuisance" and attacking the tradition of begging as a "malicious influence on the morals of children."

The killjoys carried the day. Gradually, the Fantastics died out and the begging metamorphosed into Halloween's far tamer custom of trick-or-treating. In 1924, Macy's created its own Thanksgiving Day parade but, of course, the emphasis was not on revelry and social mockery but on commercialism--kicking off the sacred holiday buying season.

"These days, people go to the Thanksgiving day parade to watch," says Brown. "In the 19th century, the notion of a parade was to participate."

Today, Thanksgiving has been thoroughly domesticated--in both senses of that word. It's a completely homebound family holiday--"a celebration," Pleck says, "of the ideal of the family, of family affection and nurturance and homecoming."

Which is a wonderful thing to celebrate, of course. But it doesn't leave much room for the traditional Thanksgiving pleasures--cross-dressing, begging and the disruption of Broadway shows.