Years ago I commanded an Army recruiting company in upstate New York. The job required a lot of “windshield time” as I drove from one recruiting station to another. I normally packed a lunch for these little journeys and always selected a convenient setting of natural beauty for my afternoon lunch break. One day I found a beautiful little spot just off the road near a flowing brook. I pulled over, rolled down the window, and settled into a tasty ham sandwich as I watched the gentle waters flowing by. I was hungrily into my third bite when I saw something stopped me in mid chew and made me wonder if I was hallucinating – a mouse swimming underwater.
Common Shrew. Note the long, pointed snout, tiny eyes and ears. Mice have large eyes and distinct ears.
I had never seen such a thing! I carefully opened the car door and got as close as I could to the strange creature. Sure enough it was a small, mouse like mammal swimming underwater, scooting about and frantically probing between rocks and other submerged objects. What an incredible sight! I observed the little guy for about five minutes until it suddenly and swiftly disappeared. A book I’d read years before by the great animal behaviorist Dr. Conrad Lorenz popped into my mind and I realized I’d seen a water shrew.No matter how many times I stopped by that stream afterward I never saw the creature again, but it remains as one of the most memorable sights I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness.
I have some GREAT neighbors living across the street from me! How great? Great enough to catch and bring a young mountain beaver over to my house so I could get some pictures. Now that’s what I call great neighbors. Thanks Mike and Lisa! (Actually it was Lisa who did all the work.)
As you can see, these guys are cute – from a certain angle. But they do have some organic weapons for self defense.
Learn more about these fascinating, uniquely Northwest rodents in an article I wrote a while ago. Click here:
Imagine a fish that combines the head of a toad, bioluminescence, poisonous spines, and an ability to produce sound so pronounced that it was once blamed for keeping part of an entire city awake. This is no science fiction fantasy or deep sea mystery. It’s a creature that often lives under our very feet as we walk the beach during low tide. This utterly unusual animal is a fish – the Midshipman, Poricthyus notatus.
A large boulder turned over in a mud flat at low tide reveals thousands of Midshipman eggs attached to the underside.
A close up shot shows how many of the little guys are well on their way to development.
The male Midshipman who was hunkered down under the rock and a good look at the toothy mouth he used to defend his brood. Note the line of photophores under the jaw.
The name of this animal, every bit as unusual as its demeanor, originates from the rows of photophores that line the underside of the fish. Early mariners were obviously impressed at the resemblance of these organs to the buttons on a midshipman’s uniform – hence the name. Depending on the source consulted these very noticeable photophores are used to attract prey, confuse predators, or attract a mate. Most likely they are used by the creature for all of these purposes at one time or another. As expected for an animal with such an ability the Midshipman is a nocturnal species, and considering the fact that several hundred photophores line the upper ventral sides of the fish that bioluminescence must be quite a show.
Last Thursday, 16 July 2015, the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium announced the death of one of its most unique animals. “ET” was a walrus named after Stephen Spielberg’s famous movie character. Discovered as an orphaned calf in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska by oil workers in 1982 the “little” guy made his way to the zoo in Tacoma where he lived for the next 33 years. ET and his kind are truly fascinating animals. They join seals and sea lions in the order Pinnipedia, meaning “feather footed,” a reference to the shape of their fins but a name that sounds oddly delicate considering the size of these animals. At about 1 ton male walruses are the biggest pinnipeds in the Arctic and outweighed in their order only by the southern elephant seal. (We have a northern elephant seal here in the Northwest, one of which made a surprising appearance in downtown Port Townsend not long ago. More on that later.)
I can’t guarantee that this is the actual “ET” but it does show how entertaining and intriguing theses animals are to observe.
I have spent many enjoyable hours watching, photographing, and listening to ET at the Point Defiance zoo so it was sad to read of his passing. Along with two other walruses at the park he was an incredible sight above and below the water line. I thought I’d pass along a few photos and several intriguing facts about these extraordinary animals.
Historical records show that walruses at one time extended into Ireland and as far south as northern Spain and along the coast of Germany
The common name walrus comes from the Norse hvalroos, meaning “whale horse”
Males are about twice the size of females
Walruses change colors. They appear very light skinned, almost white in cold water but turn a noticeable pink in the sun due to blood flow
That very obvious mustache is shared by both sexes and consists of 450 extremely sensitive bristles and are used to find the bivalves walruses love so much and are the among the most sensitive of all mammal whiskers
Their ability to suck is so powerful that they are able to hold clams and mussels in their lips and suck the meat out without having to swallow the shell; the Inuit tell of walruses even sucking birds into their mouths from the surface of the water
Males have a pair of pouches arising from the pharynx that extend along the sides of the neck; these fill with air and help to produce the numerous sounds that walruses make, the most intriguing is the distinctive, clear sound of a bell. These sacs also serve as a life preserver, keeping the animal afloat with little effort
Tusks are used for defense and to maintain ice holes, not for digging up clams and such. They ram their head against the ice to open holes
References:
“A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife” by Richard Sale, copyright 2006
“Walker’s Mammals of the World, Volume II,” Richard M. Nowak, Sixth Edition
When the Toad came home There was panic in the parlours and howling in the halls, There was crying in the cow-sheds and shrieking in the stalls, When the Toad came home! from Kenneth Grahame’s “Wind in the Willows”
With due respect to Mr. Grahame’s famous character, the poor toad is not high on the list of cuddly creatures. Lacking beauty, grace, speed, and just about every other admirable quality toads have been relegated to the realms of witches and hallucinogen seeking crazies in our popular culture.
Why the bad rap to begin with? Setting aside for the moment the less than lovely physiognomy of the amphibian, its physiology and behavior are the roots of the problem The noxious properties of toad excretions were well known to ancient people. And unlike frogs that seemed to know their place in the swamps, those rascally toads would periodically burst from stagnant waters and invade the realm of man, sometimes in unsettling numbers. By the Middle Ages toads were strongly associated with witches as familiars, ingredients for spells, and mystical symbols. Put this all together on an ungainly beast that with warts sprouting all over the place and you have a pretty good recipe for unpopularity.
Question: When is a hairless, coldblooded, slippery, bug eyed beast considered cute?
Answer: When it’s a frog.
There are few non-mammalian representatives of the animal world more appealing than frogs. Salamanders and the little known caecilians don’t rate Muppet style fame. Despite all their similarity toads don’t even come close to that level of status. Frogs, however, approach national icon status (the Gieco gecko notwithstanding.) But misplaced popularity or not, the order of amphibians called Anurans surely deserve the interest. They are fascinating creatures with complex lives and a wonderful array of color.
The Anurans comprise both what are commonly referred to as frogs and toads. More than 7,000 species (according to the American Museum of Natural History) of them are found on every continent outside of Antarctica. Everyone, of course, knows the difference between frogs and toads. Toads are those warty things that spend life on land with only occasional forays into water to breed. Frogs are, for the most part, smooth skinned water lovers. But from water level to tree top a huge variety of froggy lifestyles exist. There are a few who don’t require much more than adequate moisture to get by, some that spend nearly an entire existence submerged, and a some who prefer the half and half leisure of the shoreline.
How can a creature that moves just slightly faster than a snail, lacks a brain or blood, is unable to control its body temperature, finds food only because it happens to accidentally slide over the top of it, and spends most of its life clinging to rocks teach us anything about the beauty and complexity of life? Well stay tuned. The animal in question is one of the true stars of our Northwest wildlife. In fact, our shore line harbors more of these fascinating creatures than any other shoreline on earth.
About 2,000 species of sea stars inhabit our planet. At slightly less than three quarters of an inch, Leptychaster propinquus is the smallest. The largest reported sea star is the yard long Giant Star, Evasterias echinosoma, found in deep waters of the far north Pacific. The racehorse of the echinoderms is are very own Sun Star, Pycnopodia helinathoides. Barreling along at three tenths of a mile per hour they actually are quite speedy in the sea star realm. Should you ever have the pleasure of watching one of these big stars slide along the ocean floor it really does seem to move quickly.
Just could not resist these chelonians. Note the beautifully colorful shell of the Painted Turtle reflected so nicely in the water compared to the yellow underside of the Red Eared Slider on the right. Hard to make out but the red ear of the slider gives this turtle its name. Sliders get surprisingly large.
First of all my apologies to those of you getting notified unnecessarily by spam comments. I’ve worked pretty hard to make this an informative and entertaining website. Unfortunately we have a bunch of knucklehead self promoters out there.
And as for those of you who want to bombard me with your crap – you have pissed me off. Quit now. I have no problem with you attaching your link to your comments, but if the comment has nothing to do with wildlife it will be marked as spam and dumped in the digital trash heap where it belongs.
