Golden silk orb weavers made my backyard their home this summer since about the middle of June. Last week, I counted 5 different webs in my yard. Their webs are huge, measuring 10 feet across and 6 feet from top to bottom. These deadly traps catch all kinds of insects from mosquitoes to wasps. This species is not reported to prey upon vertebrates, but I would not be surprised, if they do catch tree frogs, hummingbirds, and bats on occasion. They are a large spider over 1 inch long from abdomen to head, and their leg span is even wider. Golden silk orb weavers are also known as banana spiders because most are yellow. (They are also some times found in boxes of bananas.) The specimens in my yard seem to be brown with yellow spots, likely a local variation. This species ranges from North Carolina to Argentina, and they are expanding their range due to global warming.
There are currently at least 5 golden silk orb weaver webs in my backyard. The webs measure about 10 feet across and about 6 feet from top to bottom. They angle their bodies according to the time of day to reduce direct exposure to the sun. The webs survived a recent rain storm from the latest hurricane. I took this photo.
Golden silk orb weavers belong to the Nephilidae family and were formerly given the scientific name Nephila clavipes. However a recent genetic study determined they should be classified in the Trichonophela genus within the Nephilidae family. Females are 6 times larger than males, so if a smaller spider is seen in their web, it is probably a male. Females eat males when they are done mating with them. A genetic study suggests the characteristic of female gigantism in the Nephilidae family originated over 100 million years ago. There is another species of spider–the silver-colored, fat-bodied Argyrodes nephilae–that some times lives on the outside of golden silk orb weaver webs. This species steals captured prey from the golden silk orb weaver by cutting the webbing attached to the web-wrapped insect and lowering it to the outside of the golden orb weaver’s web where it is safe for the Argyrode spider to consume. A golden silk orb weaver web is an ecological community in itself with female and male golden orb weavers, web-wrapped insects, and a smaller species of spider that lives life as a thief.
Reference:
Kuntner, M. et. al.
“Golden Orb Weavers Ignore Biological Rules: Phylogenomic and Comparative Analysis Unravel a Complex Evolution of Sexual Size Dimorphism”
The top predator on Philip Island is a 12 inch long centipede with armored plating and a venomous bite. This monstrous creature preys upon sea bird nestlings, lizards (skinks and geckos), and crickets. It also eats the vomited fish and squid parent birds regurgitated to feed their chicks. About half of its diet consists of vertebrates, an unusual ratio for a terrestrial invertebrate. Scientists estimate 11%-19% of black-winged petrel chicks are lost to centipede predation every year. However, centipedes don’t prey upon white winged petrel nestlings because they are larger and can defend themselves against the centipedes.
Phillip Island Centipede with a black-winged petrel. This species of centipede regularly feeds upon black-winged petrel chicks. 13 species of sea birds nest on Philip Island. Photo from the below referenced study.Photo and location of Philip Island. Note how denuded the island is of vegetation. This is from feral pigs, goats, and rabbits all of which have been eradicated. Image also from the below referenced study.
Scientists think centipedes may be able to help restore the ecology of Philip Island. Originally, the island was covered with white oaks, Norfolk pines, and red legged grass; but sailors introduced goats, pigs, and rabbits as a food source, and the feral animals denuded much of the island of vegetation. People eradicated the animals about 40 years ago to save the island ecosystem. Centipedes eat the sea birds and transfer marine nutrients to the rest of the island in their feces. This added nutrition may help the trees and grass grow back faster.
This is the largest species of centipede that lives in Georgia. Scolocryptis sexspinosus. It grows to 3 inches long. I’ve seen this species in my yard. Photo from insectidentification.org.
The largest species of centipede in Georgia grows to about 3 inches long–1/4th the size of the Philip Island centipede. This species is known as the red bark centipede (Scolocryptis sexspinosus), and I have seen this species in my yard. They have a venomous bite that is painful to humans but not fatal. It can live up to 5 years and will molt its exoskeleton as it grows. They are predatory but not often seen because they are usually nocturnal and fossorial. Worldwide, there are 8000 species of centipedes. Though their name means 100-legged, their number of legs can vary from 54-354, depending upon the species. Centipedes don’t mate. Instead, the male drops off its sperm, and the female later comes along and engulfs it. Females defend their eggs, and some species even defend their young.
Reference:
Halpin, L; et. al.
“Arthropod Predation of Vertebrate Structures Trophic Dynamics in an Island Ecosystem”
Photo of Cougar feeding on a horse from The Wildlife Society
President Teddy Roosevelt called the cougar that “horse-killing cowardly cat.” Though Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive President for his time, I think some of his opinions and attitudes were highly distasteful. He was a war monger and a sadist. He went on a safari to Africa and slaughtered thousands of animals, using the excuse that he was sending specimens back to an American museum. Cougars kill for food, but Roosevelt was slaughtering thousands of animals from a distance with an high-powered rifle under the false guise of obtaining scientific information. I think he did it because he enjoyed being a bloodthirsty killer. I respect the bravery of a cougar far more than anything Roosevelt ever did as an outdoorsman. Cougars are 1 of the few solitary carnivores that regularly attack prey larger than themselves.
There is no doubt cougars kill horses, but Steve Rinella, a Trumpanzee with an hunting and fishing show on the Outdoor Network, disputed a New York Times column written by Dave Phillipps, suggesting cougars could control feral horse populations. Phillips refused to appear on Rinella’s podcast, and Rinella seemed to relish how another expert had proven the author of the column wrong. He’s not wrong. A recent study determined cougars could control feral horse populations in sagebrush environments. Scientists studied 21 radio-collared cougars–13 in the Great Basin region of Nevada and 8 on the Sierra Nevada range. They counted 820 predation events and learned that in the Great Basin region horses made up 60% of the cougars’ diet while mule deer just made up 29% of their diet. On the Sierra Nevada range, mule deer made up 91% of their diet. Cougars hunted horses in sagebrush environments quite often, but rarely in mountain environments. In the Great Basin individual cougars killed an horse about once every 2.5 weeks. Another study looked at cougar prey on the Pryor Mountains. Here, cougars killed no horses and their primary prey was mule deer, though bighorn sheep made up 9% of their prey. 1 individual female cougar specialized in preying upon bighorn sheep, but most cougars preferred deer. I think horses are not an important part of the cougar diet in the Pryor Mountains because there are less than 200 of them there, and they are located in an area with no cougars.
Of course, cougars hunt horses. During the Pleistocene cougars co-existed with horses over the span of 2 continents for hundreds of thousands of years. I’m sure there were certain ancient environments where horses were the most available prey species. Horses are well adapted to arid grasslands, and during the Pleistocene were more common than deer in this type of environment. Cougars would have been competing with dire wolves, giant lions, and saber-tooths in open areas, and they likely were more common in woodlands or forest edges. But they may have held their own in some locations where horses and competing carnivores were abundant, depending upon ecological conditions. Incidentally, the Pleistocene cougars that lived in North America were not directly ancestral to cougars that live on this continent now. They were an extinct ecomorph that grew slightly larger than modern cougars and may have had spotted fur. According to genetic evidence, all modern North American cougars descend from a population originating in eastern South America about 10,000 years ago. Strange as it may seem, this population completely replaced the Pleistocene ecomorph.
Horses originated in North America and lived here for millions of years, until man wiped them out. People who claim feral horses harm the environment are full of shit. Horses make trails, defecate all over the place, and graze down vegetation…just like they did for millions of years. Horses recolonized North America, and this recolonization is no different from when wildlife managers re-introduce endangered species to lands where they had previously disappeared. There are only about 83,000 feral horses in North America today compared to tens of millions of cattle, yet cattle ranchers and do-gooder environmentalists would dishonestly lead people to believe horses are the problem, not the cattle. I call bullshit.
References:
Blake, L.
“Foraging Ecology of Cougars on the Pryor Mountains of Wyoming and Montana”
Utah State Graduate Thesis 2014
Andreason, A.; K. Stewart, W. Longled, J. Berkman
“Prey Specialization in Cougars on Feral Horses in a Desert Environment”
When I was about 4 years old I used to tell people my physician father “cures his patients.” Unfortunately, I had difficulty pronouncing the word, cure, and it sounded more like I was saying my dad “kills his patients.” My parents told me to stop saying that. At the time my dad was trying to build up his practice, and mispronouncing cure into kill didn’t help. I always think of this memory on Tuesday mornings when I start my hangover jog. I binge drink wine every Monday night, then jog in 90 degree heat the next morning, and I figure the exercise will “kill” or “cure” me. Most experts recommend not even going outside in this kind of heat, let alone running over 3 miles in it. I am 59 years old and probably suffer from high blood pressure, so this activity is by far the most hazardous part of my weekly routine. Nevertheless, it’s worth the risk for my psyche. I’d feel old, if I couldn’t do it, and I’d rather be dead than feel old.
I like to watch a television show on the Reelz network known as Autopsy: The Last Hours of… In each episode Michael Hunter examines the lifetime medical records of celebrities and determines exactly how they died. Some of his analysis is laughably unnecessary. For example Jerry Lewis had health problems throughout the later years of his life but lived to the age of 95. Just being the age of 95 should be reason enough for why he died. Frank Sinatra was another non-mystery. He drank a bottle of whiskey and smoked 2 packs of cigarettes every day for 50 years. It’s astonishing he lived to be 80. Other episodes do delve into more mysterious deaths. Luke Perry, star of Beverly Hills 90210, died of a stroke at the reasonably young age of 52. He was seemingly in good health–he exercised regularly and ate an healthy diet. Dr. Hunter did find 1 unexpected factor that may have contributed to his early demise. Perry had deep lines in his forehead, and an unpublished French study found people with deep lines on their forehead have an higher risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease.
Michael Hunter, host of the Reelz series Autopsy: the Last Hours Of. (Channel 238 on DirecTV) He examines the medical details of celebrity deaths.Luke Perry died at the age of 52 from a stroke. Note the wrinkly forehead. An unpublished French study found people with deep wrinkles on their forehead had an higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
The Luke Perry episode set off alarm bells for me because I have noticed I have a wrinkly forehead. Soon after I watched this episode, I researched the study on the internet. The unpublished results of the study were discussed at a European Medical Symposium during 2018, and a press release was issued detailing the study. It was a 20 year study that looked at 3200 people who were 32, 42, 52, or 62 years old when the study began. Over this 20 year time span 233 of the subjects died. Of the subjects who died, 15% had deep forehead wrinkles, 6% had moderately wrinkled foreheads, and 2% had no wrinkles on their forehead. I immediately noticed the bad math. 15% + 6% +2% = 23%. What about the other 77%? I sent an email to the author of this study asking about this discrepancy but so far have gotten no response. None of the other news outlets that reported the press release mention this disparity. Sciencenewsdaily.com simply plagiarized the press release and repeated the bad math. Other news outlets skipped over it (they must have noticed but said nothing). It may be true that atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) shares a genetic pathway with wrinkly foreheads but until someone explains the goofy math, I’m not going to worry about it. Most of the subjects in the study who died were probably in their 70’s, close to the average life expectancy anyway. I can think of worse ways to die than from a sudden cardiac event. If I die jogging in 90 degree heat while hungover, so be it.
Reference:
Esquirol, Yolande
“Deep Forehead Wrinkles May Signal a Higher Risk for Cardiovascular Mortality”
I always yell at the television when some ill-informed political pundit falsely claims Adolf Hitler was democratically elected. Bernie Sanders made this claim a few years ago, and a Washington Post fact-checker gave him 4 Pinocchios–their highest falsehood rating. Last week, Bill Maher again repeated this myth on his show, Real Time, and a guest agreed with him. Maher has regurgitated this lie numerous times in the past, but there is no way for an average shmuck like me to contact him and set him straight. Maybe someone can bring this article to his attention, but I doubt it.
Adolf Hitler ran for President of Germany during 1932 and lost to Von Hindenburg twice. He lost the first election by over 19% points and the second by almost 17% points. The results were not close. However, Hitler did take advantage of the democratic process to gain power, so perhaps the Washington Post’s 4 Pinocchio rating given to Bernie Sanders was too harsh. I’d give him 1 Pinocchio or the mostly false rating used by Politifact fact-checkers.
Results of the 1932 German Presidential Election and the Run-off. Von Hindenburg beat Hitler twice.From wikipedia. Von Hindenburg was the only person in Germany who could have stopped Adolf Hitler. Instead, he appointed him chancellor to form a coalition government. He could have formed a coalition government with the Christian Democrats, but he hated the more liberal party.In contradiction to the tone of this photo, Hitler thought Hindenburg was a doddering old fool and Hindenburg called Hitler a damned corporal, and he made fun of his Austrian accent.The Nazis burned down the Reichstag (the German Congress building) and blamed it on the communists. Von Hindenburg approved of the Enabling Act which gave Hitler dictatorial powers based on this crisis manufactured by the Nazis. Photo from the Smithsonian magazine.
During the 1928 German parliamentary elections the Nazis garnered just 2.6% of the vote. Then the Great Depression began, the economy collapsed, and the Nazi Party won 37% of the seats for the Reichstag during the July 1932 parliamentary election. This was more than any other party but not enough for a majority. Von Hindenburg was forced to broker negotiations for a coalition government. Von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor–the most important cabinet position. He also appointed 2 other Nazis (Goring and Frick) to other positions, while the 8 other cabinet positions went to members of other political parties. Von Hindenburg did not have to do this. He could have formed a ruling coalition between the the moderate Christian Democrats, his own Centre Party, and a number of minor parties that could have pushed them over the top in the Reichstag. But Von Hindenburg hated the Christian Democrats. His own Centre Party was right wing and supported by the Conservative Catholic Church, and they despised the more liberal Christian Democrats. The former Chancellor, Von Pappen, still had influence with Von Hindenburg, and he persuaded him to appoint Hitler as Chancellor. Hitler had promised to make Von Pappen Vice-Chancellor in exchange for convincing Von Hindenburg to appoint him. Moreover, 22 leaders of German industry lobbied Von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler because they feared the communists, and they felt Hitler was the best leader who could prevent the spread of Bolshevist revolution. Von Hindenburg, himself an extreme right winger, actually agreed with all of Hitler’s positions, except for his persecution of the Jews. One can understand why Von Hindenburg appointed Hitler, but he wasn’t forced into it.
Another parliamentary election was called in November of 1932 and the Nazis lost 35 seats but still held more than any other party. Here again, Von Hindenburg could have sacked Hitler and replaced the coalition government, but he did not. During February 1933 the Nazis set fire to the Reichstag building and blamed it on the communists. They did such a good job of hiding the real arsonists that historians couldn’t prove the Nazis were behind the Reichstag fire until as recently as 2013. Hitler used this crisis to influence the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Act, a law that suspended civil liberties and gave him more power than anyone other than Von Hindenburg who Hitler knew was dying of cancer. The law was not passed democratically. Members of the Reichstag who were Christian Democrats or Communists were arrested and prevented from voting against it. During his time as Chancellor Hitler gained control of the police and the military. After Von Hindenburg died during August of 1934 Hitler combined the office of the President with that of the Chancellor and called it the Fuhrer meaning supreme leader. He appointed himself Fuhrer. That does not sound like a democratic election to me.
After Hitler made himself dictator, there were elections but they were all rigged to make it look like the Nazis won in a landslide every time. Hitler ruled Germany for 11 years before killing himself in a bunker when he couldn’t deny that he had led Germany to its destruction.
8 years ago, I wrote a blog entry listing the exact species of mammals I thought probably lived in east central Georgia 36,000 years ago. I chose this time because it was the most recent period when climate was similar to today’s climate, coinciding with the last time when man was probably absent. I wondered what mammals would live in an environment untouched by man but with a similar climate. My list was an educated guess because there is only 1 Pleistocene-aged fossil site in this region, though there are some to the immediate north, south, and east. This time period was an interstadial–a warm wet period between colder drier Ice Ages. Pollen evidence suggests oak tree populations expanded. So I assumed the ecosystem was a mix of open oak woodlands, some grasslands, wetlands, and relict arid scrub environments persisting from the previous stadial. Since I wrote this blog, new information has come to light, and my list needs to be revised. Before I started to write this, I didn’t realize I had already edited some of the changes into my original article. (See: https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/if-i-could-live-during-the-pleistocene-part-xii-my-mammal-checklist/ )
The 9-banded armadillo is an addition to my list. 9-banded armadillos have recently recolonized the region, but until a few years back scientists didn’t realize this species had also lived in southeastern North America during the Pleistocene. Their fossils had been confused with those of the beautiful armadillo, a different extinct species that was about twice as big. But analysis of genetic material shows that both co-existed over the same range.
9 banded armadillos lived in east central Georgia during the Pleistocene along with a close extinct relative that was twice as big and giant armadillos that grew to 300 pounds.
On my original list I put question marks next to species that I was unsure lived in the region during this time period. Fox squirrels are 1 that should have a question mark next to it. There is no evidence in the Florida fossil record of fox squirrels until very late during the Pleistocene ~12,000 years BP. However, fox squirrel remains have been found in a Georgia cave that date to the LGM ~21,000 years ago. They may be a late invader of southeastern North America, but on the other hand they could just have been local in distribution and perchance never left remains in fossil sites. By contrast gray squirrels are commonly found in regional fossil sites. Perhaps east central Georgia was an area where fox squirrels occurred 36,000 years ago and from where they expanded into the rest of the south, but the dearth of fossil sites explains why this is unknown.
Fox squirrels probably occurred in east central Georgia 36,000 years ago but they may have been local in distribution, kind of like they are now throughout the state.
On my original checklist I included 2 species of horses, but it seems likely there was only 1–Equus caballus. Fossils of the pseudo-asses that date to the late Pleistocene are restricted to the west. The pseudo-asses did occur in southeastern North America during the Pliocene and early Pleistocene, but by 36,000 years ago they were not living in the region.
I included elk on my original checklist, but genetic evidence suggests this species did not colonize North America until about 15,000 years ago. No radiometrically dated remains of elk on the continent prior to that date have ever been found. Unless there was an extinct lineage of elk ranging here, I don’t think they lived in the region. White-tailed deer were likely the most common species of deer in the region then, just like today. However, I do believe woodland caribou and the extinct stag-moose did occasionally range into the region. Fossil remains of both species have been found at this latitude. They were probably more common in the region during Ice Ages, but I think it seems likely a few stragglers did wander into the region during interstadials. After all, this was unchecked wilderness. Some caribou herds likely migrated haphazardly, and sometimes they wandered into the region.
I think herds of caribou wandered into east central Georgia even during interstadials.
Scientists identify the remains of a medium-sized canid as coyote from fossil sites that are known to date throughout the late Pleistocene. However, genetic evidence suggests coyotes diverged from the population of gray wolves that crossed the Bering Land Bridge into North America just 20,000 years ago. So what were these coyote-like canids? I think they are an unnamed extinct species anatomically difficult to discern from modern day coyotes. This species likely played a similar ecological role. On my list Canis latrans should be changed to unnamed extinct canid.
Dire wolves and jaguars were likely the most common large predators in the region. Giant lions and saber-tooths may have existed in low numbers here. The former were more common in the more open grasslands to the south of the region. But I think bears were by far the most common carnivores. If a person could travel back in time and take a walk in the woods of this region, it would be impossible not to run into a bear. Bears are omnivores and can breed and reproduce even when there are low populations of other large mammals. Grizzly-sized black bears, Florida spectacled bears, and giant short-faced bears all roamed the region then.
I’m certain bears were abundant in the region then.
I still think most of the other famous Pleistocene megafauna occurred in the region, but some may have been transitory. I think Jefferson’s ground sloth and Harlan’s ground sloth were year round residents as were stout-legged llamas and long-nosed peccaries. Herds of long-horned bison roamed around looking for fresh pasture. Mammoths possibly passed through during annual migrations. And mastodons moved up and down the river valley bottoms.
During the Cretaceous mammals, including our ancient evolutionary ancestors, hid in the shadows from terrifying predatory dinosaurs. 65 million years later, some things never change because bats (along with rodents, rabbits, and small monkeys) still fall prey to the dinosaurs that didn’t become extinct–birds. 1 study compiled all accounts of diurnal birds hunting bats, and the authors cataloged 237 species of birds that have been recorded hunting bats. Some of the species are not surprising. 107 species of hawks and 36 species of falcons prey upon bats. Other species are more surprising. 94 non-raptor species from 28 families prey upon bats. The list of bird species that prey upon bats includes Mexican gray hawks, red-tailed hawks, Swainson’s hawks, Cooper’s hawks, bald eagles, and peregrine falcons. 1 species of falcon specializes in hunting bats and is even called the bat falcon (Falco refigularis). Owls probably kill more bats than hawks do because they are nocturnal and active when bats are most active. Species of owls that hunt bats include barn owls, barred owls, great horned owls, short-eared owls, and long-eared owls. Even some song birds prey upon bats. Brown jays, a tropical corvid, attack bats when they exit caves. And birds in the goat sucker family, such as Chuck-will’s-widows, swallow bats whole in flight. Some species of bats are particularly small and can be the size of large insects.
Red-tailed hawk hunting Mexican free-tailed bat. Photo from BBC Earth video on youtube.This bird is actually called the bat falcon because it specializes in hunting bats.Photo from the Birds of the World website.Even some species of songbirdseat bats, including this tropical brown jay. Photo from ebird.Look at the gaping mouth of this Chuck-will’s- widow. They swallow small birds and bats whole while in flight. Photo from the Kiawah Island banding blogspot.
Mexican free-tailed bats live in colonies of hundreds of thousands. Raptors attack this species of bat in shifts. Red-tailed hawks attack the bats when they leave their cave in the evening; peregrine falcons attack the bats when they return to the cave in the morning. Birds normally attack bats when they are stragglers flying by themselves. Bats flying close together may be harder for birds to single out and hunt. For bats there is safety in numbers.
References:
Lee, Ya-fu; and Yen Man Kuu
“Predation on Mexican Free-Tailed Bats by Peregrine Falcons and Red Tailed Hawks”
We chose a close destination for this year’s vacation–Dahlonega, Georgia located in the north central part of the state. My wife and I don’t like to travel and it was just a 3 hour drive. My daughter and I looked forward to nearby hiking trails, and I hoped to find some local wines to bring home with me.
Woody Gap Trail
Woody Gap Trail is part of the Appalachian Trail system. It hasn’t been logged for over a century and is in the process of becoming an old growth forest. Oaks were the most common kind of tree. I was surprised at how common black oaks were because I never thought of that species as a tree that occurs on mountains, but I was not surprised to see the rock chestnut, northern red, and white oaks. Tulip, maple, hickory, and elm were also abundant. Some of the tulip trees were quite large with diameters over 3 feet thick. In virgin forests they can get even get bigger, and I’m sure some of these will eventually grow to be enormous, unless a storm knocks them down. Ferns and tree saplings covered the forest floor. It wasn’t a good time of year to see wildlife. By midmorning, it was already so sultry, the animals were inactive and resting under cover. I saw a gray squirrel, a robin, and a crow, and I heard a bird call I didn’t recognize. It was from a species that doesn’t live in my neighborhood. I searched the internet for calls of bird species that live in deep forests such as wood thrush, white breasted nuthatch, and warblers, but none of their calls matched what I heard, so I suppose it will be a mystery bird. While we were walking on the trail, an 8 year old girl who was hiking with her family loudly imitated the sound of a monkey for 20 minutes non stop. We didn’t have to worry about stumbling upon a mother bear and her cubs. The air smelled good, except for a small area of the trail where a skunk must have passed earlier that morning.
The forest floor alongside Woody Gap Trail is covered in ferns and saplings.Some of the tulip trees here get quite big–the trunks are over 3 feet in diameter.Preacher’s Rock. Looks like it would make a good bear’s den, if it wasn’t next to the trail.
The Dahlonega Gold Belt
Dahlonega is located in an interesting geological region known as the Dahlonega gold belt. 500 million years ago, this area of the globe consisted of volcanic islands. Hot magma flowing into deep ocean dissolved gold from the sea water. The gold became concentrated in cracks of quartzite rock that resulted from faulting. Gold is a basic element that doesn’t erode and can be found among rocks that do erode. The discovery of gold here during 1829 caused a gold rush and further contributed to the desire among Europeans to remove Native Americans from the region. Crisson is an active gold mine in Dahlonega where people can pay to pan for gold. This sounded tedious to me, but I did find some interesting artifacts in their gift shop. They sell Jasper arrowheads. Native Americans made this type of arrowhead during the Archaic Age which lasted from about 6000 years BP to 1500 years BP. If I did pan for gold, I’d be more interested in fossils and human-made artifacts.
Jasper arrowheads. They are of Archaic Indian Age. They sell these for $1.50 at the Crisson Gold Mine.
Vineyards and Mead
There are 15 vineyards in the Dahlonega region. Grapes thrive here because of the climate and the sloping hilly land. Most of the vineyards have wineries where people can pay to taste wine, pretend they like it, and buy bottles. The wineries are only open for a few hours, a few days a week, and none were open at a convenient time for us. We did find a place that makes and sells its own mead. Mead is wine made by fermenting honey. My late great-grandfather was a beekeeper who made his living by turning his honey into mead. He would drive to bars in his horse and buggy and sell his mead. He was also a famous poet in Europe, and the Emperor Franz Josef of the Austro-Hungarian Empire invited him to recite his poetry. After the Nazis invaded Poland during World War II, they arrested him and his wife for being Jewish and he died in a concentration camp.
I bought mead at a meadery in Dahlonega. There are also 15 vineyards in the area, but their winerys are open just a few hours a day, just a few days a week.
The Sawnee Mountain Preserve in Forsythe County, Georgia
On the way home we stopped by the Sawnee Mountain Preserve, an area protected by Forsythe County, a suburb of Atlanta. We walked on the Fairy Tale Trail. Girl Scouts decorate the trail with little wooden houses where fairies can live. I was more impressed with the trees. White oak, swamp chestnut oak, southern red oak, hickory, and tulip were the most common trees I noticed. There were a few shortleaf pine but not many. This tract is also in the process of becoming an old growth forest. I heard cicadas and a tree frog, but again it is just not the right time of year for wildlife watching. They did have gold fish and red-eared sliders in a manmade pool.
Aerial photograph of the view from Sawnee Mountain in Forsythe County, Georgia in 1924 (top) and today. There was more agricultural land 100 years ago, but today there are more houses and trees.3-pronged southern red oak at Sawnee Mountain Preserve.Grapevines and saplings cover the forest floor alongside the Fairy Tale Trail in Sawnee Mountain Preserve.There are a multitude of impressive white oaks in the Sawnee Mountain Preserve.
Underground rivers flow through the limestone bedrock underneath the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. When a river enters a cavern it flows in a circular pattern, eroding the walls into a circular shape. The roofs of these caverns eventually collapse, creating a small bucket-shaped lake known locally as a cenote. There are almost 20,000 cenotes on the Yucatan peninsula, and they host many unique fish species found nowhere else on earth. A recent survey of 4 cenotes captured 1,350 fish including 11 species from 5 families. The cenotes studied were small and deep–less than 2 acres wide but over 30 feet deep.
The most common species found in this study were mosquito fish from the Poeciliid family. Cichilids were also common, most notably a beautiful fish, the yellow jacket cichlid. This fish is a popular game fish, reportedly with a good flavor. The yellow jacket cichlid has an interesting habit–it feigns death and preys on smaller fish that attempt to scavenge it. Colorful tetras, popular aquarium fish, live in cenotes, and they are preyed upon by the pale catfish, the top predatory fish in the studied cenotes. Scientists found blind swamp eels in these surveyed cenotes. Blind swamp eels are found throughout underground cave systems in the region and have no need for sight. Although some cenotes are connected to the ocean through underground passages, scientists found little marine influence on them. Instead, zooplankton and insect abundance along with phosphorus concentrations have a greater influence on fish populations.
View from inside a cenote. There are almost 20,000 of these geological features on the Yucatan Peninsula and they host fish species found nowhere else in the world. Photo from Thrillist.com.Yellow Jacket Cichlid. A beautiful fish that is popular for catching and eating.Blind swamp eel.Pale catfish.
The Yucatan Peninsula was also home to an unique mammalian fauna during the late Pleistocene. Cenotes inundated by sea level rise preserved the remains of many species, including a species of giant ground sloth and a species of peccary found nowhere else. 4 complete human skeletons dating to the late Pleistocene were discovered in a cenote that is now below sea level. (See: yucatan peninsula | Search Results | GeorgiaBeforePeople (wordpress.com) )
Reference:
Camargen-Guerra, T; L.K. Escalera Vazquera, L. Zambrano
“Fish Community Structure Dynamics in Cenotes of the Biosphere Reserve of Sian Kaan, Yucatan Peninsula”
Some species of extant megafauna demonstrate how impressive similar extinct species were. Asian water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) weigh up to 2600 pounds, and their horn span averages 3 feet long. The individual in the below photo has an horn span of about double the size of the average. The largest known horn span of an Asian water buffalo was from a specimen shot in 1955–it had an astounding horn span of 13 feet 10 inches. The extinct long-horned bison (Bison latfrons) had horn spans up to 7 feet long, but it seems likely the largest individuals had horn spans even longer than the record specimen of Asian water buffalo shot during 1955. Long-horned bison are estimated to have reached weights between 2700-4400 pounds–significantly heavier than Asian water buffalo–and if these estimates are accurate, some individuals probably had horn spans exceeding 14 feet long.
Asian water buffalo (Bubalus arnee). Their horn span averages 3 feet, but this animal has an horn span that is close to twice that long. I found this photo on Twitter. I don’t know who took it.I took this photo of a Bison latifrons specimen at the Georgia College Museum in Milledgeville, Georgia. This specimen was found near Brunswick, Georgia and dates to 24,000 years ago. This species evolved into Bison antiquus during the Last Glacial Maximum. B. antiquus evolved into modern Bison (B. bison) after the end of the last Ice Age.
The Asian water buffalo has been classified as endangered since 1986. There are only 4000 left. They are found in small herds in 8 protected areas in India, 1 in Nepal, 1 in Bhutan, 1 in Thailand, and 1 in Cambodia. They are thought by many to be the ancestors of domesticated water buffalo, an animal used for pulling plows before the era of mechanization. Asian water buffalo prefer to live in swamps and marshes, and their hooves are wide and don’t sink in muddy ground, giving them superior performance in farm labor compared to a plain old ox. They also produce a richer milk than cows, and cheese-makers use their milk to make Mozzarella. Domesticated water buffalo have escaped from captivity in Australia, parts of Asia, Argentina, and Bolivia where they thrive on grass, sedges, fruit, bark, and twigs in wetlands. A species of European water buffalo became extinct about 10,000 years ago.
The ancestor of the long-horned bison crossed the Bering Land Bridge and colonized North America a little less than 300,000 years ago, marking the beginning of the Rancholabrean Land Mammal Age. They inhabited open woodland and prairie. Their long horns were a defense against big cats such as saber-tooths, giant lions, and jaguars (just like water buffalos use their horns to fend off tigers and lions). During the Last Glacial Maximum ((~21,000 years BP-~15,000 years BP) long-horned bison evolved into a smaller animal with shorter horns known as B. antiquus. This was likely in response to reduced quality of food and water sources. Following the arrival of man in North America, B. antiquus evolved into the even smaller but more mobile and migratory modern bison (B. bison). Instead of long horns and large bodies to battle big cats, bison needed longer legs, so they could run away from wolf packs and man.
GeorgiaBeforePeople 