Sunday, February 24, 2019

How do Butterflies that live in temperature and northern environs survive Winter?................."Most survive deep snows and frigid temperatures in a stage called winter diapause, in which metabolic and respiratory rates are low and slow"........... "The cold itself is not a direct hazard to the butterflies – rather, it’s the formation of ice crystals in body tissue that can quickly be lethal"............... "To keep from freezing, butterflies reduce the amount of water in their blood by as much as 30 percent and then thicken it with glycerol, sorbitol, or other antifreeze agents"............"Adults that overwinter store fat in their bodies in the fall"................"Before entering diapause, they find a place to hide such as a hollow tree or log, a crack in a rock, or inside an old building"..................... "In these protected and somewhat insulated hideouts, they enter diapause until the longer and warmer days of spring bring them forth to mate and lay eggs for the next generation".............."Before breaking diapause in the spring, an individual must first experience a long period of cold weather followed by a longer daylight period"....................."The cold period must be months long to trigger the end of diapause, for if it were shorter, the individual might end diapause during a winter thaw only to be clobbered by the next arctic front"

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https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/the-butterflies-of-winter The Butterflies of Winter by Kent McFarland March...
Saturday, February 23, 2019

"Supplemental feeding(whether winter or summer) isn’t helpful at all to deer"............... "Instead, it’s detrimental to their digestive health and encourages overcrowding of deer in a given location, upping the ante for Chronic Wasting and other diseases to reach epidemic proportions".........."In winter, deer reduce their energy expenditures by hunkering down during extended cold stretches"............"In this way, they can focus their activity during times when temperatures are warmer".............. "Similar to animals that hibernate, deer store fat – it can constitute up to 20 percent of their body weight".........."They can use that fat as a sort of energy savings account"................. "A deer’s digestive system also goes through changes to cope with less abundant – and different – food sources".............."Deer are ruminants, which means they have a four-chambered stomach, like cows and sheep"............"Each chamber contains microorganisms to help with digestion"............."These microbes become tuned in to a winter diet of twigs and buds, nuts, any fruits and berries that persist, and whatever grasses they can find".............. "A sudden change in diet – say to supplemental corn or rich hay – can wreak havoc on this system".............Therefore, the key to a healthy deer herd, is QUALITY HABITAT-----“Quality winter habitat is far better for the long term management and sustainability of deer populations"..............."Having to rely on winter feeding is not a management approach, it is a complete management failure"

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https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/feeding-deer-does-much-harm Feeding Deer Does Much Harm, Little Good by Megha...
Friday, February 22, 2019

"White-tailed deer feeding habits shape the acoustic properties of their forest habitat, potentially affecting the vocal communication of understory-dwelling songbirds and other species, according to a Vassar College study conducted June 10-16, 2015"............."Heavily-forested areas tend to reverberate and scatter sound more easily than open space, and thus the sound transmission is a crucial component of communication for species including songbirds"............."The site of the research was the Vassar College Farm and Ecological Preserve, a 527-acre preserve surrounded by a suburban residential matrix in Poughkeepsie, New York".............."The habitat is primarily mixed deciduous forest(oak, ash, maple), interspersed with coniferous tree(White Pine, Hemlock, etc) species"............."At the time of the study the deer population density at the site was estimated to be between 19 and 21 animals per square mile"............ "Deer density of this magnitude has previously been shown to have a significant impact on both vegetation structure and avian communities, such as reduced understory vegetation diversity and abundance and decline in forest-songbird species dependent on understory vegetation"........."The findings suggests that songbird vocalizations might be more effective and transmit information more clearly, to both intended receivers and unintended receivers such as predators, in deer-browsed environments"

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https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://phys.org/news/2019-02-white-tailed-deer-acoustic-properties-forest.html&ct=g...
Thursday, February 21, 2019

"It has been suggested by naturalists and biological historians that lynx may have been widely distributed in both the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of Michigan in the 1800's"......... "However, six of seven verified records from the 1800s are from the Upper Peninsula near the Wisconsin border; a lynx killed in Washtenaw County".......... "Five lynx trapped along the Au Sable River in Oscoda County in 1917 represent the only verified records of lynx from the Lower Peninsula"..........."Verified records of lynx occurrence in Michigan in the early 1900s are extremely scarce with five specimens collected on Isle Royale in 1904 and 1905".........."These records appear to illustrate the historical rarity of lynx in Michigan, though they do not provide any indication of individual fitness or population viability"............"Many current day biologists caution that some of the historical lynx records from Michigan may be unreliable given the potential misidentification of bobcat for lynx"...........The overwhelming consensus of biologists is that the lynx was extremely rare, if not already extinct in the ninth Biennial Report (1937-38) of the Michigan Department of Conservation"........With all this said, gratifying that the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources confirmed that the "cat" seen entering the woods near Lexington, Michigan on Feb 16 is in fact a Canadian Lynx and not a Bobcat..............This is only the 3rd confirmed Lynx sighting in Michigan since 2002, likely a dispersing transient from Canada

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https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/michigan-dnr-animal-caught-on-video-could-be-rare-lynx dnr lynx click this link to view Lynx strol...
Wednesday, February 20, 2019

"Carrion consumption by herbivores is increasingly being observed in nature"............. "In the Yukon, Canada between January 2015 and July 2017, U. of Alberta researchers witnessed Snowshoe Hares scavenging 12.4% of carcasses deployed and were more likely to scavenge during the winter"........... "Hares consumed meat from a variety of different species, including Canada Lynx as well as the carcasses of dead hares"..........."On one occasion, an individual repeatedly ingested feathers from a Spruce Grouse carcass"............"Scavenging by hares may result from food or nutrient limitations during winter months and appears a relatively common phenomenon"

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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/01/snowshoe-hares-carnivores-cannibals-photos-yukon/ Click this link to watch Snowshoe H...
Tuesday, February 19, 2019

I bet very few of you blog readers would surmise that the state where I grew up, New Jersey, is still 40% forested despite being the 5th smallest in land mass and most densely human populated.........."Indeed,the Garden State(NJ nickname) while often maligned for its Turnpike-strewn array of industrial plants, still retains 2 million acres of woodland"........... "Ownership is evenly distributed among private (47 percent) and public (53 percent)"..........A healthy Black Bear, Eastern Coyote, Red and Gray Fox, Whitetail Deer, Wild Turkey, Beaver, River Otter, Mink, Muskrat, Opossum, skunk, Weasel, gray squirrel, chipmunk and a wide array of other smaller mammals carve out a living in Jersey's open space habitat...........And I am happy to report that the state is wild and healthy enough to now also harbor a growing Bobcat and Eastern Fisher population.............Ecologist Emily Southgate Russell is noted for her pre-colonial research on THE VEGETATION OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY BEFORE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT............And you can clearly visualize why there was a cornucopia of wildlife roaming the full of New Jersey's landmass as you read her descriptions of the diversity and density of fauna(then and now) that blanketed the region........."The land was forested except for scattered lowland meadows and clearings made by the Indians"............"Several Oak species dominated the forests"........"Chestnut was common in steeper areas and Hickory was common throughout".........."Hemlock and the northern hardwoods such as Sugar Maple and Beech wwere present but not abundant"............"Overall, the dominants of the 17th and early 18th century upland forests were similar to those in todays forests, but with more Chestnut and Hickory and less Birch and Maple"

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New Jersey Most Densely Populated U.S. States Rank State People Per Square Mile 1 New Jersey 1,210 2 Rhode...
Monday, February 18, 2019

Is the next step forward in wireless mobile telecommunications going to "jump the shark" in terms of endangering animal(human animal as well) and plant health?..............Is the planned 2020 rollout of 5G broadband celluar network platform being vetted properly to allay the health concerns of many healthcare professionals and biologists?..............."Until now, mobile broadband networks have been designed to meet the needs of people"................. "But 5G has been created with machines’ needs in mind, offering low-latency, high-efficiency data transfer"................ "It achieves this by breaking data down into smaller packages, allowing for faster transmission times"............"5G high frequency millemeter waves(MMWs) travel a short distance"................."Furthermore, they don’t travel well through buildings and tend to be absorbed by rain and plants, leading to signal interference"................"Thus, the necessary infrastructure would require many smaller, barely noticeable cell towers situated closer together, with more input and output ports than there are on the much larger, easier to see 4G towers".............."This would likely result in wireless antennas every few feet, on every lamp post and utility pole in your neighbourhood"..............."The new 5G technology utilizes higher-frequency MMW bands, which give off the same dose of radiation as airport scanners"................"The effects of this radiation on public health have yet to undergo the rigours of long-term testing"................."Adoption of 5G will mean more signals carrying more energy through the high-frequency spectrum, with more transmitters located closer to people’s homes and workplaces–basically a lot more (and more potent) radio frequency radiation (RFR) flying around us"................"It’s no wonder that apprehension exists over potential risks, to both human and environmental health"..........."The American Cancer Society’s understanding of radiation and cancer, and sparked them to state that our ignorance of RFR’s impact on human health could be compared to our previous obliviousness to the connection between smoking and lung cancer"........................."5G will potentially threaten natural ecosystems".............. "According to several reports over the last two decades–some of which are summarized here–low-level, non-ionizing microwave radiation affects bird and bee health"..................."It drives birds from their nests and causes plume deterioration, locomotion problems, reduced survivorship and death".............."And bee populations suffer from reduced egg-laying abilities of queen bees and smaller colony sizes"..............."More evidence of ecosystem disruption comes from a 2012 meta-study, which indicates that 593 of 919 research studies suggest that RFR adversely affects plants, animals and humans".............

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https://eluxemagazine.com/magazine/dangers-of-5g/ FRIGHTENING FREQUENCIES: THE DANGERS OF 5G & WHAT YOU can do about them By Jody ...