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Hobby Forum Index » Animals and Wildlife » BioBlitz celebrates natural world...
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| chatnoir... |
 Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:00 pm |
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http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080713/NEWS02/807130309
BioBlitz celebrates natural world
BY MATT RYAN • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • JULY 13, 2008
MONTPELIER -- The BioBlitz, a 24-hour search for all things living in
Montpelier, uncovered a moth, a butterfly, three dragonflies and at
least five microscopic tardigrades, or "water bears," never before
documented in the region.
"Montpelier is far more cosmopolitan when it comes to plants and
animals and other organisms than we had thought," said Bryan Pfeiffer
of Plainfield, a freelance naturalist and one of the event's
organizers. "For us, the new stuff, the surprises are always great,
but the abundance of knowledge and wisdom that we generated about
Montpelier's biodiversity is really what matters most."
More than 200 naturalists scoured the riverbanks, meadows, woods and
ponds around the North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier and
documented about 1,500 species between 3 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m.
Saturday.
BioBlitzes are volunteer events -- part science, part education, part
celebration of the natural world -- popularized by the National
Geographic Society. According to Pfeiffer, the Montpelier event
represented the largest gathering of naturalists ever in Vermont.
Mark Powell and his team captured a pair of wood turtles in the
Winooski River on Saturday morning. They brought the turtles to the
data-collecting command post -- a white tent that shadowed laptops and
microscopes, stretched across a green lawn. Powell, of Worcester,
announced the catch.
"We found them!"
Teammate Amelia Klein laid the turtles, estimated to be 10 and 3 years
old, on the grass beside the tent. Klein, of Calais, fell in the river
during the pursuit and blamed her soppy appearance on "slippery
rocks."
A crowd drew round and someone brought out the legendary, 30-year-old
Myrtle the wood turtle, a resident of the center for at least 10
years, and laid him
on the grass beside the other turtles. Powell hoped out loud Myrtle
would try to mate with the 10-year-old female.
"Let me tell, you, when turtles mate, it takes a very long time,"
Powell bellowed.
However, Myrtle -- the surly, one-eyed reptile who survived a bad bout
of pneumonia, had his gender wrongly guessed by those who named him,
and tries relentlessly to chomp fingers and toes -- would not be
wooed.
Still, finding the 3-year-old specimen proved wood turtles are at
least breeding in the wild, Powell said.
Wood turtles were decimated during the 1920s "turtle soup craze" and
many are killed crossing roads, Powell said. He notched the recently
discovered turtles' shells with a chain saw file -- to help him
identify them in the future -- and released them to the river.
"I'm prone to wildlife obsession," Powell said. "This is my turtle
phase."
Most naturalists on site were known by the critters they hunted, such
as the "spider guy," the "protozoa guy," the "botany people" and the
"moth people."
Alan Graham, a researcher at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture , was
the "mosquito guy." Graham preferred to catch the bloodsuckers with
dry ice in a net, instead of using his arms as bait. Some researchers
simply expose their limbs and count the mosquitoes that attack, Graham
said.
William Miller, an assistant professor at Baker University in Kansas,
was the "tardigrade guy." He searched for the microscopic, bloated
creatures with segmented bodies in mosses and lichens, and planned to
bring samples back to Kansas for further study.
Pfeiffer was the "dragonfly guy." He led a team to the river Saturday
afternoon, before the 3 p.m. deadline.
The team, armed with nets, searched primarily for dragonflies and
damselflies. Julie Hart, a naturalist from the Vermont Center for
Ecostudies, had already caught a stream bluet, a stream cruiser, a
widow skimmer, a rainbow bluet and an eastern forktail. Hart kept the
specimens, wings folded behind their backs, in wax paper envelopes.
They could survive in the envelopes for a few hours, Hart said.
"I really want that zebra clubtail," Pfeiffer said, knee deep in the
river.
Hart and teammate Sara Zahendra, a volunteer at the Vermont Center for
Ecostudies, discussed the geekiness of the bug-collecting culture and
briefly mentioned something about a "black lighting moth party."
"Oh, here's another one," Pfeiffer said from the river. "It's a
calopteryx aequabilis!"
The group marveled at the river jewelwing's metallic green coloring.
Pfeiffer and his team caught a few dragonflies, climbed out of the
river, walked across the bridge overhead, passed some "bird people"
and the "water insect guy" and descended to a pond. Half the team,
fearful of leeches, waited in the tall grass. |
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