Posted on 02/16/2014 10:44:36 AM PST by patriot08
Texas Treasures 2: The magnificent Whooping Crane
Reaching a height of 5 feet with a wingspread of 7 1/2 feet, it is one of the most majestic, magnificant and rare creatures on earth.
Fantastic video:
Texas Country Reporter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2C81bXu29I
Sadly, primarily through hunting and loss of habitat, the population of the magnificent whooping crane has gone from an estimated 10,000+ birds before the settling of Europeans on the continent to 1,300-1,400 birds by 1870- and down to to 15 adults by 1938.
However; thanks to conservation efforts of the Texas Parks and Wildlife, the Aransas National Wildlife Refuse (Tx) and a few others throughout the U.S, there are now an estimated 437 birds in the wild and more than 165 in captivity.
The tallest bird in North America, the whooping crane breeds in the wetlands of Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Canada. Here the cranes perform elaborate running, leaping, wing-flapping dances where mates are chosen for life. Both male and female share nesting duties. One of them is always on the nest. Frequently only one chick survives. Although the chick can leave the nest while still quite young, it is always protected and fed by its parents. Chicks are rust-colored when they hatch. At about four months, chick's feathers begin turning white. By the end of their first migration, they are brown and white, and as they enter their first spring, their plumage is white with black wing tips.
When summer ends, these migratory birds set out for the Gulf Coast of Texas, where they winter in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.
Although whooping cranes mate for life, they will accept a new mate if one dies.
These birds are very long-lived. They can live up to 24 years in the wild.
The cranes live in family groups made up of the parents and 1 or 2 offspring.
Their diet consists of blue crabs, clams, frogs, minnows, rodents, and berries.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/whooper
Get involved. Help these magnificent birds survive:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/texas_nature_trackers/whooper-watch/
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/whooper/
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Texas' very own 'lil fantom ketteh:
Ocelot kittens
This beautiful little cat once ranged as far east as Arkansas and Louisiana, throughout Texas and in Mexico. Today ocelots are currently found only in extreme southern Texas and northeastern Mexico.
The remnant U.S. ocelot population in south Texas has declined from 80-120 individuals in 1995 to less than 50 in recent years, with about half of ocelot deaths resulting from being hit by automobiles. Most surviving Texas ocelots are in the shrub lands remaining at or near the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge near Brownsville, where only 30-35 animals remain.
The ocelot is similar in appearance to a domestic cat although somewhat larger.
The ocelot ranges from 27 to 39 inches in length, plus 10 to 18 inches in tail length, and typically weighs 18 to 40 pounds.
Its fur resembles that of a clouded leopard or jaguar and was once regarded as very valuable. As a result, hundreds of thousands of ocelots were once killed for their fur. Hunting and loss of habitat have reduced these beautiful little cat's numbers to near extinction in North America. The Ocelot also usually gives birth to only one kitten although litters of two or three kittens also occur, but are not common. The small litter size and relative infrequency of breeding make the ocelot particularly vulnerable to extreme reduction in population.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0013_ocelot.pdf.
http://wn.com/ocelot_survival__texas_parks_and_wildlife_[official]
What's being done to save the 'lil Texas ketteh:
http://vetmed.tamu.edu/research/highlights/janecka%E2%80%99s-efforts-to-save-the-ocelot-population-in-texas#.UwA5c_ldWSo
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/texas_rare_species/listed_species/mammals.phtml
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Texas Tortoise
Texas Box Turtle
Most of us Texans used to catch and play with these docile little creatures when we were kids, but when was the last time you saw a Texas box turtle or a Texas tortoise? They used to be found everywhere it seems-backyards, ranches, along roadways but now they are now getting hard to find. Sadly, they are rapidly going the way of our beloved horned lizard- headed eventually for extinction unless we help them.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife request reports of any sightings:
http://www.gctts.org/BTPT/wild-sighting.html.
These animals are a unique tie to a period of Earth's history all but lost in the living world. Turtles are some of the oldest reptilian species on the earth, virtually unchanged in in 200 million years or more. These slow moving, toothless, egg-laying creatures date back to the dinosaurs, and still retain traits they used to survive then.
Their low reproductive rate, exploitation by pet suppliers, loss of habitation and overuse of pesticides and other things have lead to a severe drop in population of these creatures. They have been put on a threatened list, affording them protection from being taken, possessed, transported, exported, sold, or offered for sale.
Please do what you can to help save our Texas treasures.
http://www.texasturtles.org/Turtles.pdf
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<a HREF="http://www.drudgereport.com/">Link to Drudge</a>
becomes Link to Drudge
Ooooooh, we’re keeping watch on them, alright, and enjoying it immensely. :-)
I missed them today. Hubby said they were here this morning but they were gone by the time I woke up. A shame because it’s finally warm enough to be comfortable outside. I’m tired of shivering.
Something interesting:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Crazy-ants-can-fight-off-fire-ants-new-study-5233643.php
Also:
Phorid flies, or Phoridae, are a large family of small, hump-backed flies somewhat smaller than vinegar flies; two species in this family (Pseudacteon tricuspis and Pseudacteon curvatus) are parasitoids of the red imported fire ant in its native range in South America. Some 110 species of the genus Pseudacteon, or ant-decapitating flies, have been described. Members of Pseudacteon reproduce by laying eggs in the thorax of the ant. The first instar larvae migrates to the head, then develops by feeding on the hemolymph, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. After about two weeks, they cause the ant’s head to fall off by releasing an enzyme that dissolves the membrane attaching the ant’s head to its body. The fly pupates in the detached head capsule, emerging two weeks later.[13]
Pseudacteon flies appear to be important ecological constraints on Solenopsis species and they have been introduced throughout the southern United States, starting with Travis, Brazos, and Dallas counties in Texas, as well as Mobile, Alabama, where the ants first entered North America
U.S. scientists regularly release several species of phorid flies to control alien fire ants, which have spread across the southern U.S. during the past half century and outcompeted many native ant species.
Now scientists have released a new species of phorid, Pseudacteon obtusus (not pictured), for the first time in the U.S., Texas A&M University announced May 11.
Released in southern Texas in 2008 and eastern Texas in April 2009, P. obtusus is the first phorid released in the U.S. that is known to attack ants as they forage. In theory, feeding ants are more vulnerable to attack than those hunkering down in hidden nests.
The flies—which don’t have a taste for native U.S. ants—also drive the frightened fire ants into their nests, freeing up more food for the indigenous ants.
It’s about “leveling the playing field for native ants. We’re trying to restore the balance,” said Rob Plowes, a research associate at the University of Texas.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/photogalleries/zombie-ants/
.
And this:
http://texnews.com/1998/texas/fishkill0604.html
Glad you’re been keeping watch on them.
Speaking of this crazy weather, here on the coast of Texas
(sub tropical) one day we were at 34F during the night and it rose to 90F the next day. How’d you like to live in weather like that? Crazy.
Thanks, I’ll work on it. :)
I’ll check all that out later but I always remember what happened in places like Australia when a new species was brought in to fight a native species. It didn’t turn out for the best.
I’ll check all that out later but I always remember what happened in places like Australia when a new species was brought in to fight a native species. It didn’t turn out for the best_______________________________________________
Yeah. I’d forgotten about that.
We might have all kinds of things walking around with their heads falling off..lol
WOW! That’s a heck of a temperature swing!!!
We have swings here, too, but not quite that drastic. Our swings are usually from warm to cold, with maybe a 30 degree difference in a very few hours.
I’ve been worried about the cranes because we’ve had mighty chilly weather the past week. They seem to be doing fine, though. They’ll enjoy the warm up this week, I’m sure.
Or you can go to a good feed store and buy a 50 pound sack of D E and Phyrethrum Powder and mix your own for a huge cost savings. Just don't go around throwing it around willy nilly or you'll wipe-out all your good bugs just treat the fire ant mounds.
D E is kind of mechanical so bugs can't get immune to it. I mix a small amount of food grade (not the swimming pool stuff) with animal feed for 3 days in a row a month during the warm months to prevent worms. A 1/8 teaspoon per cat, up that scale for dogs based on weight and a small handful for 4 middle sized goats, not sure about Phyrethrum but I don't think the bugs get immune to it either, just read the labels and follow instructions.
Thanks for the input.
How cute! (photo of chick)
You mentioned you wanted to learn about birds.
Here’s a cool short video about birding in S Texas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2C81bXu29I
Also, Corpus Christi, Tx is one of the ‘birdiest’ if not the birdiest city in the U.S.
Bird watcher’s paradise.
“Also, Corpus Christi, Tx is one of the ‘birdiest’ if not the birdiest city in the U.S.”
LOL, that’s where I live, and yet I know almost nothing. Thanks for the links, I appreciate it.
I also remember a lot of tarantulas growing up. They would cross the road by the thousands. We would catch them and put them in jars. Or just shoot them with a BB gun. I guess the fire ants have ruined them as well.
That’s what I heard as well. They came in a wooden crate around the root ball of a tree. Following that were other invasions but they think it was the original.
From ‘Texas Treasures 1’ watch the amazing horned lizard
shot blood from his eyes:
From National Geographic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyFqY-oaqm8
start approx 1:28
Cool video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhw7JSHPMg4
“I also remember a lot of tarantulas growing up. They would cross the road by the thousands. We would catch them and put them in jars. Or just shoot them with a BB gun. I guess the fire ants have ruined them as well.”
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Don’t ever remember seeing a tarantula in the wild- which is ok with me. Frightened of spiders of all kinds even though some are harmless and even beneficial to the environment. :)
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