The Varied Diet of Muskrats
Muskrats are primarily herbivorous. The majority of their diet consists of the tubers, roots, stems, leaves and fruit of a variety of aquatic and terrestrial plants, particularly those of bulrush, cattail and arrowhead. A diet of high fiber is possible because of bacterial fermentation which takes place in their intestines. The digestion of many herbivores is aided by bacteria, but many plant-eaters are restricted in what they can eat because they are unable to change their diet without killing the bacteria. Muskrats, however, can and do consume large amounts of meat (frogs, fish, turtles, crayfish, etc.) and still maintain a healthy population of fiber-digesting bacteria. (Thanks to Jeannie Killam for photo op.)
Watershield Flowering
Watershield is a perennial aquatic plant whose bright green, shield-shaped leaves float on the surface of shallow water in lakes and beaver ponds. Its small purple flowers bloom from June through September, with each individual flower only lasting two days. One the first day, the female flower parts (stigma, style, ovary) are mature. After receding into the water overnight, the flower re-emerges with mature male flower parts (stamens, filaments, anthers). The anthers burst open, releasing pollen to the wind, and the flower is then withdrawn below the water where the fruit develops.
The horizontal rhizomes, or stems, of Watershield, as well as the undersides of the leaves and developing buds, are covered with a thick, jelly-like slime. Botanists theorize that it may deter snails from grazing on these plants. Watershield secretes a number of chemicals that kill or inhibit growth of a wide range of bacteria, algae, and other plants.
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Living Hollow Trees
Occasionally one comes across a living tree with a portion of its trunk, or its entire trunk, hollow. How is it possible for a tree to thrive even when its center, or heart, has completely decayed? It comes down to the different kinds of wood that are produced by a tree: sapwood and heartwood.
Sapwood (often light-colored) is the younger, living, outermost portion of a woody branch or tree trunk (just beneath the bark), while heartwood (often dark-colored) is the dead, inner wood. All wood in a tree is first formed as sapwood. Sapwood’s principal functions are to conduct water from the roots to the leaves (via xylem tissue) and to disperse nutrients made by the leaves to the rest of the tree (via phloem tissue). Heartwood (so called because of its central position, not because it is essential to the health of the tree) is basically non-functioning xylem tissue that has become blocked with resins, tannins, and oils. Although the dead heartwood can lend stability to a tree, it is no longer part of the transport system, and therefore, not vital to the tree.
Cavities and hollows typically result from an injury to a tree (usually caused by fire, storms, lightning, insects or birds) that exposes the heartwood. Bacteria and fungi lose no time moving in and beginning the decaying process, which can result in a hollow tree. Because the sapwood, and therefore the transport system, is still intact, the tree lives, despite the loss of its inner heartwood.
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Snowfleas Appearing
One rarely even thinks about snowfleas (a species of springtail, Hypogastrura nivicola) until snow falls and then starts to melt. This is when these tiny wingless arthropods that catapult themselves through the air with the aid of a fork-like structure, or furcular, seem to magically appear out of nowhere. They actually are present year round, but their dark color makes them visible against the white snow.
The great majority of snowfleas live in soil, feeding on fungi, algae, decaying plant matter and bacteria. They work their way to the surface of the snow, crawling up the trunks of trees, plant stems and side of rocks where an open channel allows their migration. Thousands can be found on melting snow, especially in tracks or other depressions. No-one is absolutely sure of why they exhibit this behavior, though some scientists feel that these migrations are triggered by overcrowding and lack of food. Eventually those that survive on top of the snow make a return trip down into the soil.
Formerly classified as insects, snowfleas are now categorized as hexapods, due to some features they have which insects do not.
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
White-tailed Deer Scavengers
According to NPR, each year Americans waste 33 million tons of food (and much of this ends up in landfills where it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas). This situation is totally alien to that of other animals in the natural world, which seem to find a use for any and every organic particle. Great crested flycatchers incorporate shed snake skins into their nests, beavers build dams and lodges with branches they have eaten the bark off of, ermine line their nests with the fur and feathers of prey — the list goes on and on. When it comes to food, there is equally little waste. The carcasses of animals do not linger long, as almost every atom of their bodies is recycled. Fishers, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, opossums, bald eagles, hawks, woodpeckers, ravens, crows and many other animals make short work of a dead deer in winter. Come spring, if there’s anything left, the final clean-up crew consists of legions of turkey vultures, beetles, flies and bacteria, among others. How unfortunate we’ve strayed so far from a process that’s worked for so many for so long.
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Naturally Curious with Mary Holland 
What Other Naturally Curious People Are Saying