Animal Poopie Doobles

We're going to talk about animal poop. Go ahead, say it, "Oooooooooooooooooo!" I know, I know. But animals do have to make poopie doobles. The formal name for poopie doobles is "scat." Animal scat can tell scientists many, many things about what is going on in a particular environment.

While on my hike in Irvine Regional Park, I found all of this scat, and boy was I happy. HAPPY?? Happy about seeing poop??? That's right. Let me explain. Animal scat is evidence or proof that an animal lives in that area. Animal evidence can be many things. Paw prints or tracks, hair, scat shed snake skin, feathers, or even crushed beds of grass can all be thought of as animal evidence.

Let's look at the top picture. At first I thought this might have been left by a rabbit. But rabbit scat is perfectly round and smaller. So, then I knew it must be a deer. That means that deer still live in this park! Ah-sum! Later on, I saw deer hoof prints in the mud. So the scat and the prints prove that deer still live in Irvine Park, even though there are shopping centers within a mile.

In the next picture, there is scat that entirely different than deer scat. This is raccoon scat. Now I know that raccoons still live in Irvine Park. In fact, raccoons live in my back yard. They come to eat the fallen fruit from my fruit trees. One night, when I was in my living room with friends, I saw a fuzzy shape out of the corner of my eye outside the sliding glass door. At first I was scared! But then I saw that it was a raccoon. It was a cute "teenager," larger than a baby, but not quite an adult and I named him Rocky. I have seen Rocky a couple of times since then.

Examine the third picture. What do you see in the scat? Those are red seeds! This animal ate some kind of fruit that had red seeds. As we have said before, plants need animals and animals need plants. The animal needed this plant for food, and the plant needed for the animal to spread the seeds around. Now brace yourself, there was fur in the scat. What could that mean? Yes, this animal ate another animal. EXTREME ooooh ick, I know. But why is it a good thing that there is fur in the scat. It means that this animal probably ate a rat or a mouse. What would happen if this animal did not eat the rat? Correct, there would be a jillion rats running around, taking over the park. So, animals eat other animals, and this keeps nature in balance. So, we know that this animal ate fruit and another animal. That means it is an "omnivore." An omnivore eats plants and animals. I'm pretty sure that this omnivore scat came from a coyote. So we have proof that coyotes are here (and also in my neighborhood) keeping nature in balance.

Finally, I have a job for YOU. I want you to find out what kind of scat this is in the last picture. I am thinking that it is Mountain Lion scat!! It was very, VERY BIG. You can tell how BIG it is by comparing it with those eucalyptus leaves in the photo. It was bigger than coyote scat and much different than horsey scat. So, if you find out what animal made this, let me know. Before Orange County became so populated with people, it was home to many, many Mountain Lions roaming free. One Mountain Lion needs about a hundred square miles of space in order to find enough food to survive. Because humans build more and more houses in southern California, the Mountain Lion has less and less land. What do you think that does to the number of Mountain Lions living here? Correct, it goes down. There are very, very few Mountain Lions left in Orange County. It is extremely rare that a human will even see a Mountain Lion in Orange County. So be a detective. Find out if this is evidence that a rare Mountain Lion has traveled through this area.

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Nature and Geometry

What are these mysterious structures? Are these pieces of plastic packaging for mailing things? Are these parts of an air conditioning filter? Are these chunks of an old mattress? Nope. They are not even man made.

These are pieces of a Paper Wasp nest. Usually, a wasp nest can be found hanging from a tree, or under the eaves of a roof. A nest must have fallen to the ground and broken. Guess who brought these pieces to its home? A squirrel :) I found these pieces and other chunks of wood and leaves and dirt clods outside a hole in the ground. This hole in the ground was an entrance to a squirrel home. We'll talk about that some other time.

Paper Wasps sort of look like bees, but they are longer than bees. Paper Wasps are insects that chew up pieces of old wood and make spit wads. Oooh, ick, I know. But then they turn these "spit wads" into perfectly formed hexagonal cells.

Have you learned about hexagons? Hexagons are shapes that have six sides. Using, a ruler, try to draw a hexagon that has all the angles the same and all of the sides the same. It's pretty difficult. But now try to draw a hexagon without using a ruler. How does it look? Are the sides wiggly and different lengths? Are the angles all different?

Now take a look again at the Paper Wasp nest cells. These tiny compartments fit together perfectly! And a wasp has no rulers or any other measuring devices. It just KNOWS how to make these cells. Amazing! The cells are used as growing spaces for wasp eggs. The queen wasp will lay one egg in each cell. The egg will slowly change into a wasp.

These cells are made of hexagons that have "rotational symmetry." What that means is that if you turned (rotated) this hexagon around its middle, it would look the same no matter how you turned it. Snowflakes have rotational symmetry. If you turned a snowflake around its middle, it would be the same shape. What other items in nature have rotational symmetry? Flowers? Some of them, yes. What else? Try to think of a couple more.

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The Monarch Butterfly

We know it's autumn when the Monarch Butterfly returns to this area. Monarch Butterflies do not live here year round. They migrate. That means that they fly from one area to another. Some migrations are short. Some migrations are long. Would you believe the Monarch Butterfly flies up to 6,000 miles in one year!!! Inch per inch, that would be like us walking around the Earth four times a year! Yikes!

Why do they migrate? Well, in the winter, you and I can put on sweaters when we get cold. But a Monarch cannot. And a Monarch has to keep warm, so it flies to a warmer part of the Earth in the winter. Monarchs go to Canada and the northern part of the United States in the summer. Then they turn around and go back to Mexico and the southern United States in the winter.

Monarchs land on flowers. When they do, their feet and "faces" get covered in pollen. Pollen is the yellow dusty stuff that is found in the middle of a flower. Pollen is made up of tiny yellow grains. The butterfly carries these pollen grains from one flower to another. The pollen from the butterfly into a different flower. When it lands on the middle of the flower, the pollen grain starts to grow a tube into the flower. The tube reaches the inside of the flower. Then the inside of a flower changes into a seed. The seed drops and turns into another plant. This is why the plant needs butterflies.

Flowers make nectar. Nectar is sweet juice that Monarchs love to drink. The butterfly has on its head an amazing device called a proboscis (pro-bahs-kiss). It acts like a curled up drinking straw. The proboscis uncurls into the flower. Sweet nectar gets sucked up into it the proboscis. The sugar in the nectar gives Monarchs energy to live. This is why the Monarch needs the flower.

So plants need animals, and animals need plants. What do you get from plants. What do plants get from you?

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The Ladybug is crawling down the branch of this plant. The plant is named Mule Fat. Why does this plant have such a funny name? Supposedly, the name came from pioneers who had mules for pulling wagons. One story says that the mules would eat the plants and stay fat. Another story says that the plant would give the mules indigestion and make them bloat and be fat.

Let's take a look at the structure of these mule fat branches. If you were a hunter, what would you make out of these long and straight branches? Did you say arrows? Then you are correct. The local tribal people in the area used mule fat branches for arrows.

Mule fat had many other uses, too. The leaves were boiled in water. The water was cooled and strained, and the liquid was used for eyewash. This same liquid was also used to make hair grow and to prevent baldness. The boiled leaves were ground into mush and used to heal scrapes and bruises. The tender, young shoots of mule fat could be eaten like bamboo shoots. What a useful plant!

What is the most important thing that plants give to huumans? Shade? Yes. Food? Yes. Did you know plants give us oxygen to breathe? That's right, plants "exhale" oxygen through their leaves and they "inhale" carbon dioxide. Humans exhale carbon dioxide and we inhale oxygen. It's a good thing we have plants, and it's a good thing plants have us.

Ethnobotany (eth no bot ah nee) is a big word that means "stories about how plants have been used by people." You might like to study ethnobotany to find out how local plants were used for medicine, tools, color dye, clothing, food, and shelter.

Look at the plants around your home. What could you make out of them?

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Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly to My Home!

Aha! Here is a Ladybug catching some rays on top of a plant. Maybe you read, "The Grouchy Ladybug," or "Ten Little Ladybugs" when you were younger. Most of us think of Ladybugs as small, charming creatures. Their tiny size and bright colors make us think of them as harmless bugs. They are, in fact, harmless to humans and even helpful to humans.

Going way back, people probably welcomed Ladybugs because they were "good" for plants. How can insects be good for plants? Ladybugs eat Aphids. Aphids are very tiny insects, smaller than Ladybugs. Aphids suck the juice out of plants and give plants diseases. So farmers trying to grow crops of food did NOT like Aphids, and they were happy when Ladybugs arrived. In fact, plant nurseries, sell plastic tubs full of live Ladybugs. People can bring them home and release the Ladybugs onto the plants around their homes.

What color are Ladybugs? They are red, of course. In nature, the color red means, "DON'T EAT ME!" Often times, animals that are colored red are either poisonous or they taste terrible to predators. Not a lot of animals eat Ladybugs. Only a few birds, some other insects, and frogs will eat Ladybugs.

Has a Ladybug ever landed on you? You can count how many seconds it stays on your hand. You can be glad it is near because it is getting rid of pests that harm your plants. If a Ladybug lands on you or a friend, you can give it a name and say, "Welcome to my neighborhood, Ladybug."

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The Crows of Autumn

(If anyone knows how I can make my pix clearer on this site, please let me know)


Here is a typical autumn sight. Sitting high in a tree, an American Crow is silhouetted against the pinkish orange glow of a November sunset.

American Crows are year-round resident of southern California. They survive very well here and in much of the United States. Crows are omnivores, which means they eat both meat and plants. In fact, they eat just about anything. They eat carrion. What is carrion? Carrion is dead animal meat. Oooh, yuck...again! But, remember...what would be all over the place if it weren't for carrion eaters and decomposers? That's right... a bunch of dead animals and plants. So, we need crows to clean up icky stuff around our neighborhoods.

Crows are incredibly intelligent. There is an online video showing crows in the city, dropping nuts onto a road. Car tires crush the nut shells, exposing the edible pieces of nuts. The car drives off and crows swoop down to eat the nuts. Pretty smart, eh? In experiments, they will solve puzzles to get food!

It is common for people to think that American Crows are Common Ravens and Common Ravens are American Crows. There are just a few small differences between the two bird species. Ravens are bigger than crows. Ravens have a V-SHAPED tail. Crows have a C-SHAPED tail. You can remember this because the word RAVEN has a V, and the word CROW has a C. The sounds they make are different, too. You probably have heard a crow caw-caw-cawing from a tree.

Crows really enjoy being around other crows. They can be found together with hundreds of other crows. How many crows can you count here in the tree?

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The Survival of the Sumac

(Once again, if someone knows how to make my pix look clearer, please let me know.)

In different environments, certain plants and animals survive well and some do not survive at all. If you planted lettuce near your front door, and you did not water it, it would die. Lettuce needs very cool temperatures and lots of water and very loose soil. The plant in the picture here is Laurel Sumac. Laurel Sumac survives very well in Orange County, without the help of humans.

The Laurel Sumac has special adaptations which help it live in Orange County. An adaptation is something that helps a plant or animal survive in an area. While lettuce has roots that are about 5 inches long, the Laurel Sumac has roots which can go down 40 feet! The roots can find water deep in the clay-like soil. Lettuce has thin, delicate leaves. Water escapes easily from these leaves so lettuce dries out quickly. Laurel Sumac has thick, leathery leaves that are shaped like a taco. Water stays longer in leaves like this. If there was a fire, lettuce would burn up into a crisp. Laurel Sumac can resist really high fire temperatures before it finally burns.

I have grown lettuce in my backyard garden. I had to use a lot of care and a lot of water to make it grow. You know what else has grown in my back yard? A Laurel Sumac bush. Do you know how it got there? A Warbler bird ate the dried seeds of another Laurel Sumac plant. Then the bird pooped (ooh ick, I know). The seed in the bird poop dropped onto the dirt hill of my backyard. Then, without any care or water from me, the seed sprouted and slowly grew into a lovely 15-foot Laurel Sumac plant! Because it has so many wonderful adaptations, the Laurel Sumac grows easily in the dry dirt in my backyard.

The tribal people in this area harvested Laurel Sumac for many uses. Sumac leaves smell good, so they can be used as pot pourri. The branches were used to make a ceremonial building called a "wamkish." Smaller branches were woven into baskets and smaller hand tools. Later, orange grove farmers would look for Laurel Sumac bushes. They knew that if sumac plants could survive in the area, there was little danger of frost. Then orange trees would survive, too. So if they saw sumac, they knew they could plant orange trees.

Hopefully in the future, people will plant more Orange County native plants around here. They will need very little water and very little trimming. Look at some plants outside your front door. Does someone have to take care of them? Or do those plants take care of themselves? Ask an adult if you can take out one old plant and replace it with a plant that grows well in your environment.

Here is the website of Tree of Life Nursery. They grow plants that survive easily in Orange County. They have a catalog that can be downloaded.

http://www.californianativeplants.com/

Check out all the plants that require very little water and very little care. Lots of these plants attract birds and butterflies, too.

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Our Changing Earth

First of all, does anyone know how to make my pictures look more clear on this blog? If you have suggestions, please let me know. I would appreciate it!

Look at these crazy layers of rocks. How were they formed? If we
were standing here thousands of years ago, we would be on the ocean floor.
We would be swimming with sharks and fish and turtles. That’s
right, the level of the ocean has gone up and down over millions of years.
This area used to be completely under water. Over time, minerals and dead
plants would float to the bottom of the ocean. This layer of stuff on the
ocean floor is called sediment. When you make a cake, you put icing on top
of a layer of cake, and then more icing, and then more cake. Well, these
layers of sediment would lay on top of another, just like the layers of a cake.
Slowly, over millions of years, the weight and pressure would change the
sediment into layers of rock. Sediment + time + pressure = sedimentary rock.
So, these cliffs are made of sedimentary rock. They are at an angle and
squished like a rainbow because other incredible forces of the Earth pushed
them up and together. The cliff is exposed because wind and rain have
eroded through the rock over time. These cliffs are a reminder that the
Earth is always changing, sometimes quickly and sometimes very slowly.
What are some things that can change the Earth quickly? What are some things that can change the Earth slowly?

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A Beetle Helps YOU Survive??

Don’t be frightened. This is just a decomposer called a Darkling Beetle. The Darkling Beetle has an exoskeleton. That means it has a hard shell on the outside giving structure and protection to its body. It looks like something tried to eat this beetle or a rock fell on it. See the little piece of exoskeleton that is missing?

When I found this beetle, it was doing what it does best. It was chewing up dead plants and turning them into soil. So if you see one, don’t squish it! It is busy making fertile ground for healthy plants. And what is one of the most important things that plants provide for humans? Oxygen! So without this Darkling Beetle and
other decomposers, we could not live.

We’re all connected in a web of life, aren’t we? One strand of the web is connected to another. And that one is connected to another. Without one strand of the web, the web gets weaker. Without many strands the web falls apart. We need all creatures so that the web of life remains strong and efficient.

Can you name ten things that help you survive?

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The Power of Water

What force in nature could have snapped a railroad track into two pieces, moved this 1/2 ton boulder for miles, and tossed this piece of concrete around like a toy? I will give you a hint. I took these pictures while standing in a dry creek bed. When the rains come in the winter, many tiny drops of water come together to make rivulets. These rivulets join together, rushing down a mountain, and become creeks. The creeks flow further down the slope, and grow into a rushing river.

Have you ever seen a news story about someone who thought it might be exciting to float down the Los Angeles River during a big storm? Someone jumps in expecting a fun ride; but, then they wind up almost drowning, and having to be rescued by a helicopter. It is hard to imagine how much energy is possessed by a flooding river.

Imagine that a raindrop weighs the same as a popcorn kernel. That’s pretty light. Now think about holding a bag or jar of popcorn kernels. Now imagine the
weight of 1,000,000 jars of popcorn. That would be enough weight to break this railroad track, to push (transport) this boulder, and to bend that piece of iron on top of the concrete. Objects are broken off, moved a distance, and then are deposited or placed in different areas. This process is called deposition. Deposition and other processes change the surface of the Earth. Some of these changes are relatively slow, and some happen very quickly. Do you think it took minutes, days, years or centuries to move this boulder down the mountain?

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Ants, Ants, and More Ants!

The weather is still dry, dry, dry with no rain in sight. Ants have been coming in and around my house since July. Why do they come into your house and mine? Is it just to annoy you and me? Well, actually, they march into our houses in search of water during the dry months of the summer and the early autumn.

Although ants are extremely annoying to humans, they are very necessary in this world. Ants are called decomposers. A decomposer is an organism that breaks down dead animals and dead plants into soil. Once again, ooooh, yuck! But what would be laying around all over the place if there were not ants? That's right, a bunch of dead animals and rotten plants would be all over your neighborhood. So, thank goodness for ants!

Three kinds of decomposers break down dead plants and animals. We will call them THE FIMs...Fungi, Insects, and Microorganisms. What are fungi? Well, you may like them on your pizza, or maybe in your bread, or in your cheese. Fungi are things like mushrooms, yeasts, and molds. What are insects? Insects are creatures, with three body parts: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. They have six legs and usually have a hard "shell" on the outside of their bodies. What are microorganisms? These are organisms, like bacteria and protozoa, that can only be seen with a microscope.

So which FIM is an ant? A fungi, an insect, or a microorganism? If you said "insect," then you are correct! Do you have any idea how ants are able to follow each other over long distances? As they march along, they put a kind of perfume on the ground that only they can smell. Strangely enough, ants "smell" with their antennae. As long as they keep smelling the scent on the ground, they will follow it to a food source.

Not only do ants eat dead plants and animals, but ants get eaten by other animals. Other creatures like lizards, spiders, other insects, and even fish eat ants. Let's say that you had a HUGE scale to weigh animals. Pretend that you could weigh all the animals in one country all at once. Well, if all the animals together weighed 10,000 pounds, 1000 pounds of that would be ants! That's how important ants are in the animal kingdom. They get rid of dead organisms, provide food for other animals, and create soil for farmers. Three cheers for the extremely irritating, but very necessary ANT!

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The Prickly Pear Cactus

Have you seen these plants growing somewhere in your neighborhood? Called Paddle Cactus in English and Nopales in Spanish, this plant produces red fruit that gets ripe in the autumn. The fruit is called the prickly pear in English and tuna in Spanish. Have you ever eaten the "paddles?" Nopales are cut into strips are cubes and can be used like potatoes. You can fry them, dice them for a salad, or make stew or soup. Mmmmmm, tasty! Also, you can eat the fruit. You can turn the juice into frozen sorbet, or pour it into beverages, or make it into jelly and candy!

The prickly pear fruit and cactus show us that animals need plants and plants need animals. The prickly pear starts out as a flower. Bees go to the flower to get nectar to make honey. Pollen on the bees' legs goes into the flower and makes a fruit start to grow. The fruit starts out green and then gets ripe and turns red.
Humans and other animals know when the fruit is red, it is delicious. See the first picture? See the fruit and the seeds laying around it? Can you guess which animal ate the prickly pear? Do you think it was a coyote or maybe a pack rat or a jack rabbit? When the animal eats the fruit, it swallows the seeds, too. What happens to the seeds? They wind up in the animal's poop! Ooooh, icky, I know. But it is true. And this is how the seeds get "dispersed," or spread out over the land. Then these seeds turn into new cactus plants. Animals use these large cactus plants for shelter. A coyote cannot catch a bunny or a snake if it is hiding in a cactus patch. So here we see that the cactus needs animals, and the animals need the cactus. If you were an animal, under which fruit tree or bush would you live?

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A Deer above the Creek

My husband and I were lucky enough to spot a few deer along the trail in Santiago Oaks Regional Park. Santiago Oaks is only two miles from gas stations and grocery stores, but it seems like a different world. It is important for you to know that nature is not too far from home. A car ride can get you to a regional park in Orange County. If a car is unavailable to you, you can take the bus or ride a bike with an adult to many parks in Orange County. Also, nature can be found in local city parks, too. It just takes a little patience and a keen eye to find native plants and animals in your neighborhood.

Deer are native creatures to this area. They get their energy by eating plants. Because they eat plants only, they are known as herbivores.

Look at the deer's ears. Why is it helpful for a deer to have big ears? Correct! It can hear very well. It can hear when a mountain lion steps on a branch in the woods. The deer's hearing ability helps it escape from predators. Predators are animals that eat other animals.

What color is the deer? Why isn't it bright pink? How does the coloring of the deer help it hide from predators? You are right. The drab brown color of the deer blends in with the brown color of the plants, dirt, and trees. When something looks the same as its surroundings and it hidden, it is called camouflage. The deer is camouflaged with the help of its tan colored fur.

Are the eyes of the deer on the sides of its head or in front, like a human's? They are on the side. Why do some animals have eyes on the sides of their heads while other animals have eyes in the front? A prey animal is one that is hunted and eaten by another animal. Its eyes are on the side so that it can look all around and watch out for predators. Predator eyes are in the front so that they can see prey. There is a saying that will help you remember if an animal is a predator or prey. "Eyes on the side, I must go hide. Eyes to the front, I must go hunt." Is a bird a predator or prey? What about cats and dogs? Are they prey or predators? Think of different animals and try to figure out if those animals are predators or prey.


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