Phhheeeeewwww WEE!

Vultures slop around on dead meat all day. Fortunately for them they have two species of anaerobic bacteria living in their gut that help withstand any internal bacterial toxins AND they’re able to bathe their legs in their own urine to kill any outside bacterial toxins!

This all may seem vile, but it’s all necessary for both the vultures and us.  Vultures play a major role in the ecosystem by munching on all the dead flesh hanging around. These scavenger birds help to get rid of potentially deadly bacteria and viruses that may inhabit and breed on rotting carcasses. We should praise them, really, for taking the heat and doing what they've evolved to do. Unfortunately, many species of vulture are either endangered or threatened. So, who’s going to do their job once we've killed them all?

But, to leave this one on a happier note, next time you pee your pants, just explain to everyone that you decided to take an anti-bacterial bath.  

It's A Good Thing Your Boogers Don't Eat Bones

The Osedax mucoflon literally means Bone Eating Snot Flower. It’s a small sea worm that only really survives and proliferates when there is a whale carcass for it to consume. They don’t actually have stomachs or mouths; but, instead they attach themselves to the bones and team up with symbiotic bacteria to help digest the nutrients released from the fats and oils. The males, however, don’t actually feed on the whale. The females are the larger visible snot flowers. The males actually are microscopic dwarfs that live INSIDE of the lumen of a gelatinous tube that surrounds the females. These male dwellings are actually called “harems,” and there are anywhere from 30 to 100 males living inside of a female at a time! They sustain themselves on the yolk left over from the egg that they hatched from. It is said that the sex of these bone eating worms is actually determined by their environment. Apparently when females reproduce they disperse “undifferentiated larvae” into the ocean on a quest for whale bones. The larvae that settle on the bone turn into females, and the larvae that settle on top of the females turn to males! Once the whale is consumed most of the Bone Eating Snot Flowers die with the hope that the larvae floating in the ocean will find a new carcass to colonize.

The Osedax mucoflon is only one of countless more species of bone eating worm. You can read more about them hhhhheeeerrrrreeeeee.

Clover or?

If the 3 leaf clover represents the Holy Trinity (said Saint Patrick), and the 4 leaf lover is good luck (says everyone), then what does the 57 leaf clover mean (found by a guy in 2004)?! WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

"Nom nom nom," said the Clothes Moth.

Tineola bisselliella, or the Common Clothes Moth, is a species of fungus moth. Fungus moth larva (aka the caterpillar) mostly feed on, well, fungus, lichens, and detritus. Detritus, if you, like I, didn’t already know, is dead particulate organic matter…like bones, horns, feathers, and poop. But as you may have deduced from the name, clothes moths primarily feed on clothes. Protein and cellulose based clothes, like wool, silk, cotton, linen, and fur are preferred, but they will also feed on other things like flour and salt.   

Only the larva of the clothes moth actually eats. Adult moths have enough food and moisture saved from the larval stage in order to sustain them for the duration of the time it takes them to complete their sole adult-life goal, and that is to reproduce. And, unlike other moths you may have observed, clothes moths prefer the darkness. In fact, they will die if exposed to the sun for more than just a few hours!

Annie Dillard wrote about Edwin Way Teale’s findings on the clothes moth larva in my favorite book "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," stating that when there is a shortage in food, the larva will sometimes go into a ‘molting frenzy.’ It will molt and shrink over and over and over again, becoming smaller and smaller and smaller! And then what?!

I also found a really great option of ridding your house and wardrobe of these guys that does not involve chemicals. Trichogrammatid wasps. These are tiny parasitic wasps that lay eggs inside of the clothes moth. The wasp’s larva feeds on the moth’s eggs, and bam! These tiny tiny (.079in) wasps are completely harmless to humans and disappear with full bellies within 2 to 4 weeks. Or, you could clean and aerate your clothes often, and store them in cedar with lavender satchels. Your choice.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

I spent the winter of 2013 rolling through part of the last 1% of the American tall grass prairie....freezing....searching for the infamous Greater Prairie Chicken. And I mean freezing. Two pairs of wool socks + leather boots, in a van, numb toes, freezing.

We were looking for Prairie Chickens, specifically prairie chickens who were forming a "lek." Leks are breeding grounds, booming grounds, where the single chickens (all the single chickens) go to call out to the ladies and try to make them swoon. The male chickens pick a spot in the prairie and meet there every day. They stomp their feet, fluff their feathers, puff out their orange neck cheeks, and let out these, at first gergly and then very smooooth, vibrating boooooooms. Their songs can be heard for up to a mile, hoping to reach their lady loves' ears...and vaginas.

 A similar ritual is true for the Kakapo. But, unlike the prairie chicken, the kakapo must walk...up mountains, far from their normal territory, to form their leks. The male birds dig bowls within the perimeter of their lek and boom within them. The bowl forms a sort of natural amplifier. Their lady loves hear this and walk 500 miles to find the males, just to get their baby on. Kakapos have to walk because they are flightless parrots. Back before humans inhabited New Zealand (the islands in which the kakapo live) the kakapo had no natural predators, and no need to fly. They are also the heaviest and only nocturnal parrots in the world. Their booming can be heard for almost three miles.

Unfortunately, both birds aren't doing so hot in whole scheme of life. The whole living thing. Mammals got 'em down. Human's took the land from the prairie chickens and brought predators to the kakapos.

So, just a reminder for me and for you...we have to be careful about how treat and travel around this blueberry we live on. Everything we do effects everything around us.  What's good for us may not be good for another. We have to keep the balance. Make sure that boom boom booooooom is used for making babies, and not for decimating a species.