Urban wildlife?

In the middle of a big city, the wildlife viewings are much fewer than they are out in THE WILD. However, the urban jungle provides different observation opportunities: wildpeople. I have had a lot of interesting wildperson sightings, usually while on the bus. For example, the other day a man sitting across from me pulled a lighter out of his pocket and kept flicking it on and off. Fortunately I was getting off soon after this started so I didn't worry too much about the possibility of becoming an arson victim. Today I am pretty sure a satanist boarded the bus with me, judging from his pentagram necklace and the evil eyed face he wore. He was not taking life lightly. Surprisingly, he was polite and let me board before him. Then of course you have the various people who obviously don't care anything about how they look or smell. These people, often mistaken for homeless people, might have legitimate jobs but do not believe in cutting their hair, washing their hair or beards, or other matters of personal hygiene. I believe these wildpeople sightings can be found on public transportation in most cities, with local flavor varying from city to city. For example, you are much more likely to observe other people begging, peeing, or shouting about the size of your rear end while taking the red line on the El in Chicago than say, taking BART in San Francisco.

Panda caretakers

This is a few weeks old, but I still can't get over it:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peterwedderburn/100067202/scientists-in-panda-suits-theres-method-in-their-madness/

More zoo animals

Since I haven't been doing fieldwork lately, I'm getting my wildlife fix from the zoo--I realize that captive animals by definition are not wildlife, but they are still really awesome. Take this Chinese leopard, for example. How often have you gone to the zoo and all the animals are asleep? This guy was up close and personal, pacing (in his enclosure) just a few feet from me! I practically could have touched him, though I would have lost a few fingers in the process.Alas, I cannot have an awesome leopard as a pet, but I can have a leopard's diminutive cousin in my house! Housecats at least retain the athleticism of their wild relatives, if not the size or spots. And they are pretty cute:

I didn't go to China...

...but I DID get to see pandas! I went to the San Diego zoo for my annual homage to my favorite animal, the giant panda. I had a panda obsession as a child and it is definitely resurfacing. Last year when I saw the newest member of the San Diego clan, Yun Zi, he was just a baby and was only in the exhibit for a few hours each day. This is Yun Zi a year ago, when he was 5 months old (pictured with his mom):
And this is Yun Zi now, happily eating bamboo. He is 17 months old and is almost fully weaned from his mother--they are still in the same enclosure but he will be independent in another month.

Interestingly, China owns all pandas, even if they were born in the United States. Apparently China does not recognize US citizenship laws--because if they were human, the pandas born here would be US citizens!

Animal Encounters

It's time to take a break from all the plant science for an exciting animal encounter. Rather, many animal encounters! As my dear friend and I drove across the southern United States on Interstate 10, we had to stop at a few roadside attractions. The first non-scheduled stop was in western Louisiana, where a billboard advertised "Pet baby alligators!"

It turned out to be a park alongside the highway. This is Bubba:

They had another alligator, Hampton, who was found by the dumpster at the Hampton Inn in town. They also had a snapping turtle and 2 adult (!) alligators, who were supposedly hibernating but had their eyes open. I learned that adult alligators only eat from June through August, and the babies are born in September.

Our next animal encounters were more commercial, but not any less exciting. In fact, there was a lot of excitement because we visited an ostrich ranch... ostriches are scary! They peck and follow people along the fence, making it difficult to get close enough to feed them.

The ranch also white-tailed deer, goats, mini donkeys, and rainbow lorikeets. All of these animals were exciting to feed. The deer were the most gentle and the lorikeets landed on my head and ALMOST made off with my sunglasses! Photos to come...

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.

Results!

I would like to share some results from my Florida experiment. Without going into all the nitty gritty details, I can show you some clear differences between my treatments. Check it out:
On the left, plants are growing tall and happy. On the right, plants are not as tall and not as happy. Plants on the left are in freshwater; on the right, very very salty water. These are only 2 of my 27 tubs, so there is a spectrum of heights and leafiness but this is a pretty nice visual!