Wolf Eel

A Eel that is not an Eel!

Wolf eels are not related to eels. Instead, they part of a family known as the wolffishes (Anarhichadidae). They belong to an even larger group of fish known as Perciform fishes, generally thought of as the perch-like fish. Their long-bodied, eel-like appearance is unique in this group of fishes.

Wolf Eels on Video!

This short, natural-history video on wolf eels was sent to us by our favorite Pacific Northwestern Filmmaker, Twyla Roscovich. For more about what she is doing in that area visit CallingfromtheCoast.com.

Quick Facts

Wolf Eels are in found shallow water to a depth of 226 meters. Females don’t reach sexual maturity until they are seven years old. An adult wolf eel may produce up to 10,000 eggs which are laid on rocks. Predators for those eggs are rockfish and kelp greenling. Wolf eels are considered “good to eat” but many places forbid taking these creatures

Where is the Wolf Eel Found?

Wolf eels are found in the North Pacific along the coast of North America from southern Alaska to California. wolfeeldistribution

What do Wolf Eels eat?

The diet of a wolf eel varies throughout its life. Young will feed on plankton while adults eat crabs, clams, sea urchins, mussels, sand dollars, and snails.

Other good links about Wolf Eels

Wolf Eel at the Monterey Bay AquariumLive broadcast from underwater showing a wolf eelGreat Video about Wolf Eel Juvenile’s on PBS

Red Ginger

The “Red” Ginger plant that has white flowers

Alpinia purpurata goes by a few common names, including Red Ginger, Ostrich Plume and Pink Cone Ginger, Jungle King, Opuhi uteute, and Tahitian Ginger. Most people would simply call it red ginger because of its apparently showy red flowers. But it doesn’t have red flowers. Its flowers are white. The red bracts that cover the plant give the impression of a long-lasting, red-flowered inflorescence. Only a patient observer will actually find the true flower buried inside the red bracts.

Where does Red Ginger grow?

Red ginger can be grown all over the world in tropical areas. While native originally to Malaysia, it has been spread across the tropics and naturalized in many areas. In fact, it is the national flower of Samoa where it is known as “teuila.” In Hawaii, it is considered an invasive species and is taking over the forest.

Growing Red Ginger

Red ginger plants, like most gingers, are plants that are almost entirely tropical. They cannot tolerate freezing temperatures except very briefly. Red ginger can be grown in South Florida, Australia, and Hawaii, among other places.

Problems in Hawaii

Red ginger, like other gingers, is an invasive species in Hawaii. However, because it is less common for the seeds to spread, like Kahili ginger, it is a bit less problematic.

General Description

Red Ginger can grow up to nine feet tall and develop into large clumps. There are two varieties, red (known as Jungle King) and pink (Jungle Queen). The wild ginger has a deep red inflorescence. The small white flowers emerge from inside the bracts. Seeds are extremely small. Leaves are shiny and green. Red Ginger “blooms” year round and is used as a tropical cut flower.

Other information on Red Ginger

  • Daves Garden has usefull information on how to grow Red Ginger

American Tulip Tree

The American tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) is also known as the tulip poplar or yellow poplar. It is one of the largest native trees in eastern North America and has beautiful, large pale green or yellow flowers. It represents one of the more primitive flowering plants in existence today, along with the other Magnolias.

american-tulip-tree

Names

Liriodendron tulipifera has had many common names. While the most common name is the American Tulip Tree, it has all been called the Tulip Magnolia, the Tulip Poplar, the Yellow Poplar, the Tuliptree, and Whitewood. The common name of “poplar” is misleading; the tree is not a poplar (poplars are in the family Salicaceae and represent common species like the cottonwood tree).

Where is the American tulip tree found?

The American Tulip Tree is found mainly in the eastern United States in deciduous forests. It is found mostly east of the Mississippi River and as far south as northern Florida and as far north as southern Ontario. The following map was produced from a USGS map of the tree’s distribution.

Tulip-Tree-range-map

Interesting facts:

  • In some areas of the Appalachian Mountains there are virgin cove forests where these trees can grow to more than 50 meters high.
  • Often there are no limbs until it reaches about 25-30 meters. Because of this, it is a very valuable timber tree.
  • The American tulip tree is the state tree of Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

tulip-tree

Barrel Sponge

The Caribbean barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta, is a large and common member of the coral reef communities at depths greater than 10 meters and has been called the “redwood of the deep.”

Despite its prominence, high biomass, and importance to habitat complexity and reef health, very little is know about the basic biology of this massive sponge, including rates of mortality and recruitment, reproduction, growth, and age. Like reef corals, this sponge is subject to bleaching and subsequent mortality.

Taxonomy from ITIS

Northern Pike

Pike: A Freshwater “Water Wolf”

waterwolfFew freshwater fish are as big and vicious as the Northern pike.  Reaching a maximum size of nearly six feet and just under 60 pounds, these fish are the top predator in the lakes and ponds where they dwell. While a few reports have implicated Northern pike in attacks on swimmers, these fish really pose no danger to humans (unless you get your fingers caught in their mouths).  The story is different for the small fish they prey upon.  These fish have been known to hunt in packs, similar to wolves.  In fact, the translation of their Latin name is “water wolf.”

Where is the Northern Pike Found?

The Northern pike is one of several species known to be holarctic, found throughout the northern hemisphere.  They are found in North America, as well as Russia and Europe.esox-lucius-range-map

usmap-esoxWithin the United States, there are Northern pike populations in North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois, eastern New York, New Jersey, Idaho, northern New England, most of Canada (though pike are rare in British Columbia and east coast provinces), Alaska, the Ohio Valley, the upper Mississippi River and its tributaries, the Great Lakes Basin and the surrounding states of Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. They are also stocked in or have been introduced to some western lakes and reservoirs for angling purposes, although this practice often threatens other species of fish such as trout and salmon. Recently, efforts have been taking to eliminate pike populations from these regions.

What do Pikes Eat?

Pike are carnivores and will eat almost anything they can get into their mouth.  Besides the smaller species that inhabit the lakes they live, pike have been known to commonly eat other individuals of their species.  Reports have shown that pike can eat other pike that are almost the same size. Young pike have even been found dead, chocking on pike of a similar size.

A recent Canadian study analyzed gut contents of 1,290 northern pikes to determine what they ate in Albertan waters.  The found that the pike ate mostly perch (Perca flavescens) followed by spottail shiners (Notropis hudsonius), burbot (Lota lota) and white suckers (Catostomus commersoni).

Northern Pike don’t just eat other fish. They will eat small mammals that fall into the water, small birds, leeches, frogs, and insects.

Fishing for Pike

Shoreline fishing for lake pike is especially effective during the springtime, at which stage the big pike move into the shallows to spawn in weedy areas. They commonly remain there to feed on other spawning coarse fish species to regain their condition after spawning. Smaller jack pike often remain in the shallows for their own protection and for the small fish food available there. During the hot summer period and non-active phases the larger female pike tend to retire to deeper water and/or places of better cover. This gives the boat angler great fishing during the summer and winter seasons. Trolling (towing a lure or bait behind a moving boat) is a popular technique.

icefishing-smolands

 

STUB

Eastern Tiger Salamander

The Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) is a common and large species of Mole Salamander. Technically, the correct common name is the Eastern Tiger Salamander, so as to differentiate it from other closely related species.

How big are Eastern Tiger Salamanders?

Eastern Tiger Salamanders will reach typical lengths of six to eight inches. However, they can actually reach up to 13 inches long.

Distinguishing Features

Adult Eastern Tiger Salamanders are usually blotched with grey, green, or black and have large, lidded eyes. They have short snouts, thick necks, sturdy legs, and long tails.

What do Tiger Salamanders eat?

Tiger salamanders generally eat small insects and worms, but it isn’t rare for an adult to consume small frogs and baby mice.

salamander-diet

American Lotus

A Large, Flowered American Plant:

American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea) is a plant common in wetland habitats throughout the US. It’s considered an emergent aquatic plant. It has large circular leaves that are connected to the petiole in the center of plant. There are no noticeable slits in the side of the leaf, which is an easy way to distinguish this plant from water lilies.

American Lotus Flowers

The flowers have several stamens around a central pistil. This showy flower only lasts a few days, yet it matures at different stages throughout its life.  The female parts come out first, which keeps the flowers from self pollinating.

American-Lotus

Biomimicry of the Lotus flower:

One of the unique features of the American lotus is its ability to repel water. The outer surface of the leaf will ball up water when dropped on it. To show this feature we included footage of it in the above video.

Eating American Lotus

The roots to American Lotus are edible as are the leaves and seeds. Native people have collected the starchy rhizomes of this plant for a tasty treat. Young leaves can be cooked and eaten like spinach, and the seeds can be eaten raw when they are immature.

As an Invasive Species

This plant is native to the US but can be considered a weed due to its ability to take over wetland habitats. It will snare fishing lines, boat props and completely inhibit boat traffic in an area.  If you have a problem with this plant you can look up management techniques at the MSUcares
website
or the TAMU
site
.

Links


Coyote

A General Overview of the Coyote

The coyote is one of six species of extant (currently living) members of the genus Canis, which includes the gray and Ethiopian wolves, the coyote, and three species of jackals. Coyotes are a medium-sized canid (typical adults weigh between 25 and 35 pounds) similar in resemblance to a domestic German shepherd.

Historically, coyotes were a plains species and inhabited much of the central and middle portions of North America prior to European settlement. As settlers moved west, they cleared forested land for agriculture, causing major habitat fragmentation. This was good for coyotes in many ways: it removed the main predators of coyotes (brown bears, wolves, and pumas) from much of the landscape, and it created more edge habitat which increased populations of small mammals, providing an increased prey base.

coyote

Behavior

Coyote behavior and social interactions vary greatly with season and geographic region. For the most part coyotes are diurnal or crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk), but have more nocturnal habits where they reside in close proximity to humans.

Coyotes are highly vocal animals and have a repertoire of barks, yips, howls, and yelps that they use to communicate with each other. Vocalizations are most often performed at dusk or during the night and are most common during the breeding season when animals are seeking potential mates and in the fall when subadults are establishing territories.

The Ultimate Model of Versatility

The coyote is a highly adaptable canid whose versatility has allowed it to occupy a wide range of niches throughout North and Central America. Although they are classified as carnivores, their food habits are quite omnivorous; their diet consists of rodents, rabbits, amphibians and reptiles, birds, eggs, insects, invertebrates, fruit and vegetative matter, deer, carrion… pretty much anything they can find! The generalist habits of the coyote have allowed it to be successful in a variety of habitats from desert to tundra and everything in between.

Coyotes are semi-social animals; they can be solitary, or form traveling pairs or packs (kind of the midway between solitary foxes and pack-forming wolves). Social habits vary depending on geographic area; for example, animals that live at northern latitudes tend to coalesce into packs in order to bring down larger prey like ungulates (especially in the winter when other prey are scarce), whereas animals that live in the desert tend to be solitary hunters, pursuing smaller prey like rabbits and rodents.

Coyote Evolution

Coyotes evolved from a wolf-like canid in North America during the Pleistocene epoch almost 2 million years ago. Since then, they have adapted to survive in just about every North American ecosystem there is. There are currently 19 recognized subspecies of the coyote, many of them specific to certain habitats and geographic areas.

Another reason for so much variation in coyotes is due to their ability to hybridize with closely-related canids. Coyotes can produce viable offspring with wolves as well as domestic dogs. These hybrids have a greater amount of genetic variability than ‘purebred’ coyotes and introduce a vast amount of diversity into the reproducing population. In fact, hybridization and introgression (mixing) of coyote genes into the red wolf genome has sufficiently contaminated the genetic identity of the red wolf enough to question its integrity as a valid species.

The main reason coyotes have been so successful in their generalist ways is their ability to adapt, namely to changes in the environment. This includes changes imposed by humans. In addition to a wide variety of natural landscapes, coyotes also inhabit urban and suburban areas. Animals living in these areas tend to change their activity patterns to being active at night to avoid contact with humans. Populations that have been exploited by hunters compensate for losses by having larger litters of pups. Unlike their close relative the gray wolf, whose populations have decreased since the time of human settlement and expansion in North America, coyote populations have grown tremendously in the wake of modern urbanization.

coyote-skull

Reproduction

Coyotes are seasonally monogamous, which means they retain the same breeding partner for a given breeding season (and sometimes multiple, consecutive seasons). Females typically have one litter per year with great variation in size, but usually 4-6 pups on average. Gestation is approximately 60 days and pups are born blind and helpless, but grow quickly and are fully weaned by 35 days. Both parents participate in caring for the young and will take turns hunting and regurgitate food to feed them. Pups reach adult size between 9 and 12 months and are sexually mature at one year. Depending on a variety of environmental conditions the young may disperse in late autumn or remain with the mother until the following spring.

Interactions with Humans

In recent years, populations of coyotes have expanded vastly and coyotes have become a regular denizen of urban and suburban areas. They have a higher tolerance for human activity than other mesocarnivores (medium-sized carnivores), and are able to exploit these resource-rich habitats. This can be dangerous however, as coyotes that become habituated to human presence tend to lose their fear of humans. This can result in coyotes predating domestic animals and negative coyote-human interactions. While coyote attacks on humans are rare, they are increasing in frequency and are a threat to human health and safety.

A short video about Coyote Management

Links to more information on Coyotes

A personal experience with coyotes from the author, Erica Santana

In 2007 Erica began work on a project aimed at exploring the food habits of coyotes in east-central Alabama as a part of a joint study on the ecology of urban coyotes. Her research entailed collecting scat samples of coyotes in landscapes that had differential human activity and development: urban, exurban, and rural areas. Using specimen reference collections and microscopic hair identification, Erica was able to identify the items that coyotes had consumed by examining their scat. She was able to reconstruct the diet of animals occupying the three differing areas of human development and assess differences in the diet along a gradient from urban to rural habitats.

coyote-research-2

Coyotes are opportunistic, generalist omnivores that consume a wide variety of foods based on what is seasonally and locally available in the areas where they live. Their diet is also supplemented by anthropogenic resources- foods that are provided by humans. It is believed that coyotes exploit urban and exurban areas in search of anthropogenic foods, and that animals living in close proximity to humans consume more anthropogenic foods than natural foods. Some studies have shown this to be true in highly urban areas, but none so far have proved that coyote activity in populated places is definitely due to the consumption of anthropogenic food.

Two of her fellow graduate students were conducting studies on urban coyotes as well. One student was studying space use and habitat selection in an attempt to categorize the spatial movements and activity patterns of coyotes along the urban-rural gradient, and the other was examining the genetic relatedness of animals residing in the same geographic area to see if animals inhabiting more developed areas were closely related to each other and if there was any genetic separation between rural and urban animals.

coyote-research

The goal of the project was to combine this information and gain a clearer understanding of coyotes in the southeast, especially animals that live in close proximity to humans. By understanding their behavior and ecology, wildlife managers can develop effective ways to manage populations living in developed areas to ensure safe cohabitation of coyotes and humans.

Lion’s Mane Jellyfish

The lion’s mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) is the largest known species of jellyfish. Its range is confined to cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, northern Atlantic and northern Pacific Oceans, seldom found farther south than 42°N latitude. Similar jellyfish (which may be the same species) are known from the seas off Australia and New Zealand. The Arctic Lion’s mane jellyfish is one of the longest known animals; the largest recorded specimen had a bell (body) with a diameter of 2.3 m (7 feet 6 inches) and the tentacles reached 36.5 m (120 feet). It was found washed up on the shore of Massachusetts Bay in 1870. This specimen was longer than a blue whale, which is commonly considered to be the longest animal in the world. (STUB)

Osage Orange Tree

Adventure with the Osage Orange Tree!

The Osage Orange Tree (also called Bodock, Bodarc, and Hedge Apple) I found at the Nashville Zoo surprised me! I don’t think I would have noticed the tree at all—tucked back behind a stand of bamboo—but the wrinkly, greenish yellow, brain-looking Hedge Apples were practically a hazard along the path. Looking up to find the tree, the heavy, soft-ball sized fruits weigh the branches to drooping before they fall with a big thud. They feel spongy enough to bounce, but they don’t bounce well. Tearing the fruit open is a little tough because it is fibrous and stringy, and they produce a milky juice which (I found out later) can give you an itchy rash. It has a faint orange smell to it, hence the name.

The seeds (which are the only edible part of the tree, though the rest is not poisonous) are covered in a slippery husk. If you are so inclined  you can dig them out of the spongy mess, un-husk, and feast away.

Crawling behind the bamboo, I found branches with short thorns and oval-shaped leaves that come to a sharp point. Some leaves had changed to yellow. I didn’t collect any leaves for my journal because zoo people were giving me the stink-eye. It’s a totally climbable tree, but the thorns are really tough, so watch out.

Where does Osage Orange come from?

It is native to North Texas, Southeast Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and is named after the Osage Indians. Now you can a find it all over the eastern US, even in the Africa section of the Nashville Zoo!

History of Use

  1. It was planted to make cattle fences before the barbed wire boom in 1874. It was pruned “horse high, bull strong, and hog tight” to keep horses from jumping over, bulls from trudging through, and hogs from wiggling in.
  2. Hedge Apples are thought to be an insect, spider, and mouse repellent if left in an area while still green. Many people swear by them.
  3. It has been used for primitive archery bows because of it’s strength, and the colloquial names Bodock or Bodarc come from the French bois d’arc, meaning bow.
  4. The dried wood yields the highest BTUs when burned as firewood. It’s “the closest to a piece of coal as you can get.”
  5. The wood is used to make musical instruments, artwork, and fancy pens because of its pretty yellow color.
  6. Boiling the wood chips yields yellow dye.
  7. The bark yields tannin.

More Fun Stuff

  • Burning the Hedge Apples makes all kinds of sparks and crackles, like a little fireworks display.
  • Osage Oranges are in the Mulberry Family (Moraceae). Most of them have milky sap like the Hedge Apple, but the bumelias and the Hedge Apple are the only thorny trees with milky sap in the Eastern US.
  • It is dioecius (having male and female plants), and you only get the Hedge Apples on the female tree.
  • The bark is orange-brown with tight furrows.
  • Hedge Apples have a lot of great nicknames that are incorrect. Here are the ones I could find: Hedge Balls, Horse Balls, Green Brains, Monkey Balls, and Mock Orange.

What else is cool about Osage Oranges?

Feel free to share your own Osage Orange Adventure. Has anyone tasted the seeds? What happens if you boil them? Does anyone have a Hedge Apple fence I could visit? Want to have an apple war?