May 31st

May 31st
Mammals:
There are no western gray squirrels on campus or in any urban areas. If you’ve seen a squirrel around lately then you saw an eastern gray squirrel. Eastern gray squirrels are not native to Washington State and they are out competing our native squirrels. We do not know why though.
Yellow baby marmots are slightly sexually dimorphic. They hibernate in the winter. They are native to western US and Southwest Canada. They are also known as a “Rock Cuck”. They are omnivores, they have one breeding season and they mate in harems (one male mates with many females).
Douglas’s fir do not hibernate. They are native to Western Washington and they live in coniferous forests. They don’t compete well with the Eastern Gray (but really who does?) Their summer coat is different from their winter coat. The adults all have a distinctive black stripe on their sides. They are solitary animals and they have an omnivorous diet.
The Columbian Brown is native to Eastern Oregon and Washington. They live in alpine meadows and dry grasslands. They are omnivorous and live in colonies. They hibernate for most of the ear, 7-8 months. They can start hibernating as early as July. Their mating season is in early spring.
The Antelope Ground is a very little squirrel. They live in burrows, they are diurnal and they don’t hibernate. They are not native to WA they are a southern species.
Yellow Pine Chipmunks live in meadows and pine/juniper forests. They hibernate 4-5 months either underground or in rock crevices.
Eastern Grays are significantly smaller than westerns. They are both territorial animals but when presented with robotic models of the opposite species they do not attack, they simply bark.
When one wants to catch a squirrel they used a specialized trap. They can put walnuts inside as bait. When the squirrel steps on the weight sensitive plate it will cause the door to shut. It is important for the trapper to check the cage frequently because the squirrel can get eaten if it is left in the trap for too long. After the squirrel is trapped you can check its sex or other characteristics. You can fit it with a tracking collar, which can send radio telemetry signals so you can track it easily.

Bees/Butterflies/Beetles:
There are 4 stages in a butterfly’s life: egg, caterpillar, chrysalise, and adult. Cabbage white butterflies can survive all season whereas most only last for a number of weeks. The painted lady for example only lives for 22 weeks. Painted lady males patrol for females in the afternoons. They can start mating one week after emerging. Butterfly and bee territories tend to overlap. Butterflies are terrible pollinators, especially in comparison to bees. The top flight speed of a butterfly is 12 miles per hour.
Bees are a type of wasp that is non-predatorial and instead subsists off of pollen. There are 20-30 thousand known species of bees. Before bees evolved, beetles were the main pollinators. There are ~100 species of bee that live on campus. There are two main types of bees, solitary and communal. 95% of bees are solitary but colony bees are the best pollinators. The queens in a colony are chosen (seemingly at random) as a larvae, this larvae is fed more than the others so that it can fully develop and be able to produce offspring. All worker bees are females, the males are referred to as drones and they live solely to copulate with the queen and then die. Bees can flap their wings 230 times per second. Bees are very susceptible to the cold so during the winter months the bees will stay in their hive and beat their wings to keep the temperature around 96 degrees. Bees can communicate the location of food by flying or “dancing” in a specific pattern. Solitary females are all fertile, they make their own nests and leave their larvae on their own with some food to subsist on when they first hatch. Honeybees are disappearing because of pesticide use.
All beetles have leathery or shell-like outer wings and mouths that chew. They have 4 life stages: egg, larvae, pupa, and adult. Beetles are found in every environment except for oceans and the poles. The California firefly Ellychnia is a beetle that is native to the pacific northwest. They are not luminescent and they don’t eat as adults. Another native beetle is the Greater Night Stalking Tiger Beetle. They have abnormally small wings, they are slow so they have to ambush their prey, and they are nocturnal. The Alder Flea Beetle hibernates in the winter. They are considered an alder tree pest. They reach maturity in August and they have a metallic green or Cobalt blue coloring.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:22 AM by mhf5