It’s hard to keep track of wild zebras in Maryland from 200 miles away, but I couldn’t help wondering if the two escapees are still roaming Prince George’s County. As of this morning, Google cannot find any news that the zebras have been captured — yes, it would have been big news — so it’s safe to assume they are still at large.
Even if you live near them it’s hard to keep track of the zebras. A lot has happened since they escaped in August.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic scientists wondered if other species could catch the virus and transmit it back to humans. Fortunately, so far no COVID-infected animals have transmitted the virus back to us. However white-tailed deer easily catch COVID from humans and spread it deer-to-deer.
NPR reports that a study of deer in Iowa last year found that deer are very susceptible to COVID. During most of the year 30% of tested deer had COVID, but during hunting season with more human contact 80% of deer showed signs of infection. Deer also spread it easily among themselves so that the prevalence of COVID in deer is now 50 times that of humans.
Deer are lucky. COVID doesn’t make them sick and it doesn’t kill them. But the fact that the virus that causes COVID, SARS-COV-2, circulates so widely among a common North American mammal may come back to bite us.
If deer become a reservoir for SARS-COV-2 and eventually transmit it back to us or to our livestock or companion animals (dogs and cats), then it has a good chance of mutating into something more unpleasant. At the very least it will never disappear.
The fact that deer catch COVID should not surprise us. SARS-COV-2 jumped from bats to humans and then spread easily from human-to-human. Here are some other viruses that cross species.
Influenza originates in aquatic birds (ducks), jumps from birds to domestic pigs, from pigs to humans, then human-to-human. Because the virus evolves so fast a new flu vaccine is needed every year.
Measles evolved from rinderpest, a virus that infects cattle, which began infecting humans between 400 BC and 500 AD. Eventually the virus diverged from rinderpest in the 11th or 12th centuries.
If you spend time outdoors in Pennsylvania you know that November is prime hunting season, especially for deer. What you may not know is that Sunday hunting, banned since 1682, has been allowed since 2020 on Sundays designated by the PA Game Commission.
Pennsylvania hunting seasons are regulated by the PA Game Commission and vary by species, region, date, firearm methods and antlers/antlerless deer. No hunting is allowed on Sundays except for foxes, crows, coyotes and the three dates summarized below. The rules are complicated so click here if you want to know the details.
Sunday Hunting in Pennsylvania in 2021
November 14: Small Game + Bear Archery + Deer Archery
November 21: Small Game + Bear Archery + Bear Rifle + Deer Archery
NOTE! If you visit any State Game Lands from 15 November to 15 December you must wear a minimum of 250 square inches of fluorescent orange-colored material on the head, chest and back combined — whether you are hunting or not.
(deer photo from Wikimedia Commons, basic calendar from 123calendars.com, orange sign from PGC, orange vest from Amazon; click on the captions to see the originals)
Sometimes DNA tests reveal more than anyone thought possible.
In 1987 when California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) were close to extinction the California Condor Recovery Plan established a captive breeding program that resulted in 518 condors in the wild as of 2019. Built into the program are routine DNA tests of condor offspring to make sure they will not be inbred. When scientists in San Diego performed paternal analysis of two recent captive offspring they were in for a surprise. The two had no fathers even though male condors were present. The mothers hatched viable eggs without mating. Were they Virgin Mary Vultures?
Well, not really. In Christian and Muslim theology the Virgin Mary conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit while still a virgin. These mother condors used asexual reproduction, parthenogenesis, to produce viable youngsters.
As Wikipedia explains, parthenogenesis occurs naturally in some plants, some invertebrate animals, and a few vertebrates including some fish, amphibians, reptiles and very rarely birds. But not in mammals. There are no known cases of naturally occurring mammalian parthenogenesis in the wild. If it happened the offspring would be female.
In October male mallards challenge each other and pair with females. This seems odd since it isn’t the breeding season … but it is! Mallards pick their springtime mates in the fall.
The majority of pairs form on wintering grounds, far in advance of breeding. Mallard pairs form earlier (September–November) than do most Northern Hemisphere Anas species. At Ithaca, New York, courtship begins in September; 90% of females are paired by November. In coastal Louisiana, approximately 55% of migratory females arrived in November already paired; 95% paired by late December.
Courtship is easy to observe because the males show off in groups.
Social courtship [among mallards] occurs on open water. Several males gather around one female and perform displays directed at her. … Especially characteristic of Mallards are synchronized bursts of male displays (Grunt-Whistle, Head-Up-Tail-Up, or Down-Up) involving up to 5 males performing one of these displays each per bout.
The male at top is performing the Head-Up-Tail-Up display. There are more courtship moves in this All About Birds video.
Listen for the high whistle of the males that are arching their backs and necks in the Grunt-Whistle display.
Competition is fierce and the ladies can afford to be choosy. In North America there are always more male mallards than females, averaging 1.33 to 1. When desperate a male may choose a female of another species. No wonder these ducks hybridize!
p.s. Maybe we’ll see courtship behavior at Duck Hollow next Sunday.
(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original)
On 17 October 2021 Reuters reported the volcano is showing no signs of subsiding anytime soon.
Streams of lava have laid waste to more than 742 hectares (1,833 acres) of land and destroyed almost 2,000 buildings on La Palma since the volcano started erupting on Sept. 19.
About 7,000 people have been evacuated from their homes on the island, which has about 83,000 inhabitants and forms part of the Canary Islands archipelago off northwestern Africa.
All of the 38 flights which were scheduled to arrive or take off from La Palma airport on Sunday [17 Oct] were cancelled because of ash from the volcano.
By now the eruption is far too dangerous to watch in the vicinity but we can view it Live on YouTube at: Live La Palma volcano eruption.
For best viewing watch the volcano after dark. Since the Canary Islands are off the coast of Africa, they are 5 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time. In the eastern U.S. begin watching in late afternoon to see lava flowing at night.
Sunset as we approach Phoenix from the air, 20 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
23 October 2021
Before COVID I used to travel about ten times a year but stopped abruptly in March 2020. This week saw our first air travel in nearly two years when my husband and I flew to Phoenix for a nephew’s wedding. I’d forgotten that air travel involves surprises, however minor, and that it’s tiring to pack and carry and rush and wait for hours on end.
Hello, Arizona. It’s been a long time since I was in the desert where the plants and birds are so different. In Phoenix the mosquitos are the same.
Here’s a selection of what I’ve seen so far. Normally I would identify everything but I am out of my element. Can you help?
Cholla cactus, 21 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)Prickly pear (photo by Kate St. John)Desert sunflower ??? 22 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
Saguaro cacti usually grow straight-tipped branching arms but sometimes, rarely, the top of a saguaro grows a fan called a crested saguaro. Notice the woodpecker holes!
Crested saguaro, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, 21 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
Yesterday a flock of Life Birds flew by at sunrise and two of them — rosy-faced lovebirds — stopped to check out a woodpecker hole in a saguaro.
Rosy-faced lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis) are native to the African desert and popular in the pet trade. In the late 1980s escaped pets established a feral population in Phoenix and are “countable” in eBird. Here’s what they look like in their home country of Namibia, Africa. (This photo is from Wikimedia Commons).
The saga of Kodiak the Steller’s sea eagle who escaped from Pittsburgh’s National Aviary on 25 September ended when he was captured on 3 October. Not so for the wild zebras of Maryland. No one thought they would still be roaming in October and yet …
At first there were many reports including this 7 September news story from NBC Washington. Click here to read the details. (Note: With six zebras in camera view, I believe this footage was taken above the farm.)
Plus this nighttime sighting reported by WUSA9.com on 24 September.
But the news is quieter now. The zebras have plenty of grass to eat and lots of places to go. They’re winter-hardy and can be out there indefinitely.
Despite every attempt to domesticate them, zebras are forever wild.
Pittsburgh looks beautiful with all the lights on but that beauty is dangerous to migrating birds. Songbirds use celestial light to navigate and are lured by artificial lights, become confused and circle them. Some immediately crash into buildings. Others land in the city and try to leave after dawn but they mistake the reflections of trees and sky for the real thing and fly headfirst into glass and windows. Some are stunned. Half to 3/4 of them die. Warblers and thrushes are especially vulnerable.
This month six Pittsburgh organizations formed a partnership to save the birds: Building Owners and Managers Association of Pittsburgh (BOMA), BNY Mellon, BirdSafe Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, and the National Aviary.
Lights Out is a voluntary program that encourages building owners and tenants to turn off as much internal and external building lighting as possible at night, particularly lights on upper floors and lobbies.
The first Lights Out Pittsburgh launched 1 September 2021 with participating buildings BNY Mellon, Carnegie Science Center, Eleven Stanwix, House Building, Law & Finance Building, Point Park University, Union Trust Building, United Steelworkers’ Building, 100 Ross, 20 Stanwix, 600 Waterfront and others turning off unnecessary lighting from midnight to 6 a.m. The initiative runs through November 15. Businesses and households can take the pledge to turn their lights out at any point during the migration season.
BirdSafe Pittsburgh is currently gathering volunteers to document bird fatalities and rescue injured birds. The resulting data will track the progress made by the Lights Out initiative. You can help by visiting birdsafepgh.org to sign up.
22 September 2021: How well is Pittsburgh doing just three weeks into the program? We have a long way to go but we are already on our way. This webcam snapshot from Discover The Burgh on this rainy 22 September shows that the BNY Mellon building is dark but not UPMC, Gulf, Koppers, Highmark, PPG and many many more.
Three years later, 22 September 2024: Pittsburgh’s voluntary Lights Out program has made a little progress but there are many glaring exceptions including UPMC (tallest building ), Highmark’s headquarters (lighted blue spike), PPG (castle top) and many bright company-name signs at the tops of skyscrapers. Here is a discovertheburgh.com view of Pittsburgh’s skyline exactly three years after the photo above.
An aerial view of a sheepdog as it demonstrates fluid mechanics, and it also shows a sheep is a particle, while a flock is a wave.pic.twitter.com/VxrHJTWcX7
