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Well, this is disturbing. The Guardian reports that over the past 25 years, 75% of all flying insects in German nature reserves have disappeared. While it’s not certain if this finding holds true worldwide, it has caused a number of scientists to reflect, “you know, it’s been a long time since my windshield was covered in bug splatters.”

In fact, we may not even need this book anymore: That Gunk on Your Car: A Unique Guide to the Insects of North America. That’s a real shame, not only because it’s incredible that anyone wrote that book, but also because the entire ecosystem depends on insects for food and pollination.

For a lengthier discussion of the same German study (and, in my opinion, a better graphic on the insect population decrease), you may also be interested in this Science Magazine article. Who knew I would one day be getting all misty-eyed for bug splatter?

Mapping With Sloths

October 18, 2017

I happened to run across the University of Victora’s Ethnographic Mapping Lab today — which is an amazing project — and found an absolutely incredible inventory of indigenous mapping icons. My favorites icons, obviously, are the animals, (I’ve taken a screenshot of some of them): the capybara icon makes me burn with desire to map all of the doing-absolutely-nothing hangouts of my favorite large rodent. And who wouldn’t want to liven up their maps with a few pumas, anteaters, or mustelidae? To all my GIS friends, I urge you: go forth, create, and sloth much more.

Comments: 0 Posted by: BlueMotMot Categories: Website, wildlife 0

Invasion of the Mushrooms

October 15, 2017

It’s been a historic year for catastrophic weather events in many regions of the U.S., several of which are still unfolding. Here in Washington D.C., we’ve been lucky enough to avoid anything like those cataclysmic events, but we do have one odd bit of weather news to report: a really rainy, mushroomy summer and early fall. Read more…

Comments: 4 Posted by: BlueMotMot Categories: UrbanWildlife 0

Mountain Lions

October 14, 2017

I was thrilled to be able to see wildlife photographer Nick Nichols at National Geographic last night, talking about his life experiences and his new exhibit at the Nat Geo offices, “Wild.”

He has indeed had a pretty wild life — apparently, he was the guy they called in when an assignment was a little too crazy for anyone else. “Get Nick,” they’d say. “He’ll do anything.”

Happy World Octopus Day!

October 10, 2017

Octopuses might not seem like the most charismatic of characters, but the reading I’ve been doing lately makes me want to do a deep dive and make an octopus best friend pronto.

In honor of World Octopus Day, Jer Thorp told a great story about getting to know an octopus on Storify.

A number of similar stories can be found in Sy Mongomery’s book, The Soul of an Octopus. Montgomery becomes friendly with a number of very different octopuses during the course of researching and writing her book, and she tells the story of each of them with a sensitivity and probing inquisitiveness worthy of an octopus’ tentacle. In this passage, she describes meeting Athena, the New England Aquarium’s octopus at the beginning of her research:

If You’re Touching a Wild Animal, Something’s Wrong

October 6, 2017

Stories like this recent one from The Guardian drive me nuts. The article describes the practice of providing wild animals for tourists’ selfies in the Amazon, and what drives me crazy about the whole thing is that the industry preys, not only on the hapless, half-drugged, beaten-up animals (though that’s bad enough), but also on the tourists.

St. Tiggywinkles

October 3, 2017

The world’s leading wildlife hospital is apparently called St. Tiggywinkles, and I can’t even.

OK, I would probably post the name of the place even if it had nothing to do with this site, but happily, it relates. I love these instructions on what to do if you find a baby bird on the ground, and I also love the woman who brought in a hedgehog because she noticed it was outside in the daytime, when hedgehogs are usually sleeping.

If the “people sphere” and the “wildlife sphere” end up covering each other like two condensation rings from the same glass set down in nearly the same place on an old wooden table, as I think is likely, then more education and engagement like this is needed. People and wild animals will continue to run into each other, crossing paths, lapping at each others’ habitats, causing havoc, and destruction, and even some cuteness along the way.

Comments: 0 Posted by: BlueMotMot Categories: Hedgehog, UrbanWildlife, Website, wildlife 1