Tribute to a turtle

Sad news today. Our little turtle friend, Milagro, has died. He was well and alive yesterday and mysteriously turned up dead today. We are not sure what happened. Yesterday I saw him attempting to eat the starfish in his tank, and he was picking at their feet. He may have gotten underneath the starfish attached to the wall--starfish tube feet are very sticky and hard to get off. Possibly he couldn't free himself from the starfish and drowned. Another possibility is that he had some internal ailment, but we just will never know. We are very sad here at the lab and wish it hadn't happened.

 Goodbye, little guy. 

Sacrifice for science

I have the solemn task of honoring the various animals and plants who gave their lives during the duration of my experiment. The plants were always intended to be sacrificed at the end; the animals were accidental victims of the circumstances. A few poor bodies drowned in the water-filled tubs that the plants were in; at least one lizard and some ladybugs met their ends this way. I suspect that a few ladybugs were attacked by ants and carried off, though I believe most flew away of their own accord. And sadly, a few unsuspecting frogs may have died from osmotic shock. A couple of times there were live frogs in the freshwater tubs, but twice I found dead frogs in the super salty water. They likely hopped in for a refreshing bath and didn't realize that they were losing their own water through their permeable skin. I don't know much about frog skin, so perhaps this wasn't the case. However, I apologize to the frog gods for the accidental death of two frogs.