Chicago Academy of Sciences Blog
Articles tagged Animals
December 14, 2022
I have spent the last three months georeferencing the herpetology collection for the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Georeferencing is the practice of digitally mapping spatial data into a database like a Species Distribution Model (Bloom et al., 2017, GIS Resources, 2013). In biodiversity research, georeferencing is used to track the occurrence of different species over time in order to understand how they are affected by climate change. Through review of these data, researchers are able to determine the threats to a species population and what level of threat the species is under (Bloom et al., 2017). This research is used by organizations like the IUCN Red List. The IUCN Red List is an organization that evaluates and publishes a list of the global extinction risk status of plant, fungus, and animal species (IUCN, 2022). While georeferencing, the red-bellied snake caught my eye. A Cook County native, this small snake is unmistakably beautiful. The red-bellied snake, also known as the redbelly snake or Storeria occipitomaculata, is named for the red (sometimes orange or pink) strip that goes down its belly. This stripe gives the snake’s underside a vibrant look compared to its brown, black or gray back. Its stripe and small stature (about four to ten inches in length) give the red-bellied snake a charming look that even the most snake-wary people can find approachable (iNaturalist, n.d.).
June 27, 2022
Collections Reveal Traces of Living Animals
What if there were a way to look back in time and observe living animals interacting directly with their environment? Natural history collections preserve the remains of organisms and the wealth of data that describe them, but there is also a world of information hidden in the ephemeral tracks and traces left behind by animals during their lifetime. I am a collections technician at the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Early in the process of digitizing the botany collection, I came across this specimen of Asclepias exaltata, or poke milkweed. This specimen has obvious insect damage: notice the holes in the leaves. Here at the museum, this would normally be a very bad sign! Collections staff regularly monitor our facilities for the presence of insects that might want to feast upon our irreplaceable preserved specimens. Damaged leaves might indicate an infestation of pests in the collection. However, as an amateur gardener myself, I recognized these particular holes as the work of monarch caterpillars, meaning that the damage was done before this plant specimen was collected for the museum. Oh, and the coolest part is that this specimen was collected back in 1871! What makes us think the damage was done by caterpillars 151 years ago, and not by unwanted museum pests more recently? Milkweed is the only host plant of Monarch butterflies, meaning that they rely on the plant during the larval stage of their lifecycle. Caterpillars grow rapidly, making different traces on the milkweed leaves as they eat, first making tiny holes, then slightly larger ones, and eventually taking big scallop-shaped bites out of the leaf’s edge (Eisman et. al, 2010). Looking at the holes of different sizes, we can imagine watching one little caterpillar develop, taking bigger and bigger bites out of the leaves as its body and appetite grow. Then, along came one of our favorite botanists, Elizabeth Emerson Atwater, who collected this masticated milkweed for her impressive herbarium collection. Atwater’s collection was donated to the Academy shortly after the Great Chicago Fire. Okay, that’s a cute story, but how do we know holes didn’t get there after the plant was collected? A century and a half is a long time for pests to potentially get in and do their worst. Plants that are damaged in life can actually heal from their injuries. Looking very closely at the holes in this specimen, we can see a thin border line around the edges. This is scar tissue that tells us the damage was done while the plant was still alive (Meineke, 2018). Before this plant was collected, it had the time to heal some of its wounds. For comparison, we can look at plant specimens that were damaged by pests after being collected and dried. Notice where the edges are broken and jagged, without any apparent healing.
June 10, 2022
On June 7, 2022, the Living Collections team and ecologist Dan Thompson released 117 head–started Blanding’s turtles into the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County. This release was a couple of months earlier than usual due to the emergence of a fungal disease, Emydomyces testavorans. The fungus erodes turtles’ shells, leaving them susceptible to other pathogens. Emydomyces testavorans was detected in head-started Blanding’s turtles in the Chicagoland region by University of Illinois researchers in late 2021. The origin of the fungus and how it entered the captive head-start facilities is still unknown. Further testing will be conducted to learn more about the fungus and to determine its prevalence in the wild. The Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, and partners, have been working along with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to test the head-start turtles. After a series of tests, our 2021 hatchlings tested negative for Emydomyces testavorans. Thus, our turtles were cleared to be released as soon as possible!
November 12, 2021
Fall brings lots of seasonal changes. Leaves turn yellow, orange, red, and then fall; temperatures drop; the amount of daylight grows shorter. Animals prepare for winter or migrate. Some animals may also change their color. Ever wonder why?
November 8, 2021
What do snakes do in the winter?
How do cold-blooded animals deal with cold weather? We had lots of questions about snakes in the winter and Dr. Allison had lots of answers! Keep reading to learn about what snakes in Illinois do in the winter when it gets cold. “What do snakes do in the winter? Do they hibernate?” Reptiles, including snakes, and amphibians brumate over the winter. It’s not hibernation, which warm-blooded animals do. Instead, snakes stop eating as the temperature drops, their metabolism slows down, and they look for an underground place to hide from surface temperature changes. Snakes are less active over the winter, but will still come to the surface to drink on warmer winter days, but they won’t eat until spring. “Where do snakes spend the winter?” Snakes overwinter underground in a hibernaculum. A hibernaculum is a place where several hundred to several thousand snakes spend the winter together brumating. Multiple species of snakes can be found in a single hibernaculum. Both juveniles and adult snakes will follow each other’s scent trails to a hibernaculum.
November 6, 2021
Every year, on the first Saturday of November, we recognize National Bison Day and celebrate the ecological, cultural, and economic contributions of the United States’ national mammal. Although they were once found throughout Illinois and much of North America, bison were nearly driven to extinction in the 19th century as a result of westward expansion. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of Native Americans, private individuals, and the U.S. Department of the Interior, the bison became one of the United States’ first successful conservation stories. The Nature Conservancy, Nachusa Grasslands, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, and Fermilab have all reintroduced bison to prairies in Illinois. According to the Nature Conservancy, there are currently 350,000 bison across the U.S., about 1% of their previous population; some on public lands, most in private herds. The terms “buffalo” and “bison” are often used interchangeably, but they actually refer to two very different species! True buffalo are found in Africa and Asia, while bison are found in North America and Europe. Although they both belong to the family Bovidae (which also includes domestic cows, goats, and antelope), they aren’t closely related. Adult male bison, known as bulls, can weigh up to 2,000 pounds (that’s one ton)! This enormous weight, and their eating behavior, actually benefit prairie ecosystems. They’re grazers, meaning that they primarily feed on grasses and sedges. This helps keep these plants pruned and allows other plants space to grow. Their hooves also help aerate the soil. When they roll around on the ground, they create wallows. Wallows are depressions that form in the earth which then create shallow pools of water when filled with rain. These wallows benefit birds, insects, and plants, and are uniquely created by bison alone!
October 11, 2021
They are small, they are cute, and sometimes they can be a little scary, too. Bats are fascinating mammals and they have some amazing adaptations that are a lot like a superhero’s super powers! Let’s take a closer look!
September 28, 2021
Did You Know That Some Birds Can Weave? In the family of Ploceidae, there are multiple species of weaverbirds. As their name suggests, these birds can weave their nests on upper branches of trees. Weaverbirds are mainly found in Asia, Australia, and sub-Saharan Africa. A weaverbird nest is easily recognizable for its shape–a round enclosure, sometimes with a long entrance, that looks a lot like a tunnel. In the wild, the entrances protect the nest from tree snakes. Each nest can host up to two adult birds and their eggs. Some weaver species build nests together in the same tree, like an apartment building, that can reach 16 feet across! These examples of weaverbird nests are all part of our oology collection.
September 1, 2021
Black swallowtail butterflies (Papilio polyxenes) are an extraordinarily beautiful and common butterfly that, with the right plants, many people can observe in their own backyards. We receive tons of questions about them this time of year as the weather starts to cool so we sat down with Allen, our associate curator of entomology, to answer some of them.