Holly Strand, Author at Wild About Utah

April 17, 2014March 4, 2018

Ring-Necked Pheasant

Native distribution the Common Pheasant in Eurasia, Courtesy Wikimedia, licensed under GNU Free Documentation LIcense v1.2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:GNU_Free_Documentation_License — Native distribution of the
Common Pheasant in Eurasia
Courtesy Wikimedia
Licensed Under CCL Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Ported

Male Ring-Necked Pheasant
Courtesy Wikimedia
Gary Noon, Photographer
Licensed Under CCL Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Ported

Male Ring-Necked Pheasant in flight
Courtesy US FWS & Wikimedia
Magnus Manske, Photographer

Male(R) and Female(F)
Ring Necked Pheasant
Courtesy Wikimedia, Chris O, Photographer
Licensed Under CCL Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Ported

wikipedia.noon.Pheasant.250x164.jpg — Native distribution of the
Common Pheasant in Eurasia
Courtesy Wikimedia
Licensed Under CCL Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Ported

Male Ring-Necked Pheasant
Courtesy Wikimedia
Gary Noon, Photographer
Licensed Under CCL Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Ported

Male Ring-Necked Pheasant in flight
Courtesy US FWS & Wikimedia
Magnus Manske, Photographer

Male(R) and Female(F)
Ring Necked Pheasant
Courtesy Wikimedia, Chris O, Photographer
Licensed Under CCL Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Ported

Hi I’m Holly Strand from the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University.

It’s spring, and the birds are starting to make quite a racket outside. Here’s a bird we hear every day now, in the morning or at dusk: [https://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=common+pheasant]
That’s the sound of a male ring-necked pheasant crowing and then beating his wings against his body. The male is announcing his territory which may be 7 acres or more. Under the right conditions his announcement can carry up to a mile. Looking out the window, I often see our resident pheasant marching around the yard, sometimes herding a female or two, or three. For the dominant males keep female harems during the mating season.

Last year another male wandered up our driveway. This led to a skirmish. The two males held their heads low, rumps raised and tails straight out behind. They pecked and said some choice words to each other in pheasant language. Periodically they burst into a fluttering fight that involved some vicious biting, and kicking. Eventually the intruder left leaving the other to resume his post as head pheasant of our yard.

If you haven’t ever seen a ring-necked pheasant you are in for a treat when you do. The males have a green iridescent head, a bright red face, and a distinctive white ring collar. Their spectacular multicolored plumage ends in a long coppery tail cropped with thin black bars. The females are much smaller; their feathers a mottled mixture of brown and buff with dark markings. While not so beautiful, they are much harder to see and therefore are safer from predators.

All pheasants are natives of the Old World–more specifically of southern Asia. The ring-necked pheasant is not a distinct species there. It’s an informal name that refers to certain subspecies of the Common Pheasant, which occupies a huge territory stretching from the Black Sea and Caucasus region through Central and Middle Asia all the way through China Korea and the Russian Far East. Throughout this enormous territory, over 34 different subspecies of common pheasant have evolved– some with a ringed marking around their necks and some without. What we have here in America is a hybrid mix of a few of these ring-necked subspecies—mostly from China.

Because of their huge popularity as a game bird, ring-necked pheasants have been transplanted all over the world. In the U.S. the pheasant was introduced on the west coast in the 1860’s , but now you can find them in all but the most southern states. They are especially concentrated in our central Corn Belt region.

The ring-necked pheasant was first introduced to Utah around 1890. Their numbers are maintained through transplanting, natural dispersion and further releases of game-farmed birds. Some of those birds end up on the dinner table and some of them find refuge on private lands and in Utah neighborhoods like ours.

Thanks to Paul Marvin for his Xeno-Canto recording.

For sources, pictures and more information, go to www.wildaboututah.org.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Images:

Native distribution the Common Pheasant in Eurasia
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phasianus_colchicus_distribution.png
Male Ring-Necked Pheasant https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pheasant.jpg
Male Ring-Necked Pheasant in flight https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ringnecked_pheasant_flying_USFWS.jpg
Male and female Ring-Necked Pheasant https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Male_and_female_pheasant.jpg licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Text: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading

Giudice, John H. and John T. Ratti. 2001. Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: https://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/572

Heinz, Gary H. and Leslie W. Gysel. 1970. Vocalization Behavior Of The Ring-Necked Pheasant. The Auk, 87: 279-295. https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v087n02/p0279-p0295.pdf

Johnsgard, P. A. 1999. The pheasants of the world. 2nd ed. Smithson. Inst. Press, Washington, D.C.
All About Birds: Ring-Necked Pheasant https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/ring-necked_pheasant/id

Audio:

Paul Marvin, XC163168. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/163168. License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
Date 2011-06-04
Location National Bison Range, Dixon, Montana

March 20, 2014March 1, 2018

Tick Tock

Hi I’m Holly Strand from the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University.

It’s springtime–bringing warm light-filled days, colorful blooms, chirping birds and bloodthirsty ticks. Ticks are arachnids like spiders and scorpions. They vary in size, shape, and color. But they all have barbed feeding tubes that they use to excavate a hole in your skin so they can bury their heads and suck your blood. Their accordion-like bodies expand as they sip and sip and sip.

Most ticks go through three life stages after hatching: six-legged larva, eight legged nymph and then adult. The ticks need a single blood meal during each of these life stages. To get this meal, ticks wait for their victims–usually a mammal–using a behavior called “questing.” Questing ticks crawl up the stems of grass or perch on the edges of leaves and extend their front legs–like a toddler signaling he wants to be picked up. The presence of carbon dioxide, or heat, or movement let the tick know that a meal may be passing by soon and the tick gets ready. When a passing animal brushes the tick’s extended legs, the tick simply climbs on board. It doesn’t jump. It just feels and attaches. Some ticks will bore in immediately and others will cruise around looking for a spot where the skin is thin and blood vessels closer to the surface.

This head-burying and blood-sucking behavior alone gives ticks an unsavory reputation. But of course ticks are also dangerous in that they transmit disease through their saliva. The Rocky Mountain wood tick and American dog tick have been found to feed on Utahns. Both can transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia, also known as rabbit fever.

The Western black-legged tick is another Utah native. It’s a vector for lyme disease. According to the Utah Dept of Public Health, it does appear that a small number of individuals may have acquired the disease in Utah. Human transmission from this tick has definitely occurred in California.

Ticks can be found in grasses, shrublands, forests—basically everywhere. Ticks in hotter, arid parts of the state reach peak activity in April and May while ticks at higher elevations are active from May through July. Ticks in all geographic areas are active in the fall as temperatures cool and moisture increases.

Now that I’ve frightened you, know that the chance of getting a tick born disease in Utah is still small. In spite of its name, the vast majority of Rocky Mountain spotted fever cases are reported in eastern and central states. And in any given year there will probably be less than 10 cases of each disease mentioned. And they are all treatable if caught early. So don’t let fear of ticks keep you inside. Just remember that they are out there and check for them when you’ve been brushing up against vegetation.

To remove a tick, do NOT burn it with a hot match or smother it in petroleum jelly. These methods can make a tick burrow deeper before dying. Instead, remove the tick as quickly as possible using the fine tipped tweezers that you carry in your first aid kit.

For more information including tips on tick avoidance and removal go to www.wildaboututah.org.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Image: Courtesy Bugwood.org, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Text: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pages on Preventing Tick Bites; Life Cycle and Hard Ticks that Spread Disease
https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/on_people.html [Accessed March 19, 2014]

James, Angela M. 2006. Distribution, Seasonality, and Hosts of the Rocky Mountain Wood Tick in the United States. Journal of Medical Entomology 43(1):17.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7272126_Distribution_seasonality_and_hosts_of_the_Rocky_Mountain_wood_tick_in_the_United_States

McDade, J E and V F Newhouse. 1986. Natural History of Rickettsia Rickettsii
Annual Review of Microbiology. Vol. 40: 287-309
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.mi.40.100186.001443

USU Extension. 2010. Ticks and Associated Diseases Occurring in Utah. Utah Pests News. Volume IV. Summer 2010.
https://utahpests.usu.edu/htm/utah-pests-news/summer2010&ticks

Utah Department of Health, Bureau of Epidemiology.
Fact sheets on Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia and lyme disease.
https://health.utah.gov/epi/fact_sheets/Default.htm

Utah Department of Health, Bureau of Epidemiology.
Historical Communicable Disease Reports 1980 to present.
https://health.utah.gov/epi/100yr/100yr.html

Skerrett, Patrick. 2013. Matchless strategy for tick removal; 6 steps to avoid tick bites. Harvard Medical School Health Blog. Posted June 7, 2013.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/matchless-strategy-for-tick-removal-6-steps-to-avoid-tick-bites-201306076360

Zimmer, Carl. 2013. Outside Magazine, June issue.
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/science/feeding-frenzy.html

February 20, 2014January 9, 2024

Echoes of Lake Bonneville

Leland Harris wetlands, Snake Valley, Utah, Courtesy Utah Geological Survey — North Spring, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Utah. Courtesy Utah Geological Survey

Leland Harris wetlands
Snake Valley, Utah
Courtesy Utah Geological Survey

Least Chub
Courtesy & © Mark C. Belk, Photographer
Echoes of Lake Bonneville

Hi, I’m Holly Strand of the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University.

Deserts are dry by definition receiving an average of less than 10 inches of precipitation a year. In Utah’s cold West Desert, this skimpy amount of moisture slakes the thirst of sagebrush, saltbush or greasewood, but not much else. However, just like the Sahara, the West Desert has its oases. In certain lowland valleys you’ll find complexes of pools and marshes. There isn’t enough rain to form these freshwater sanctuaries. The water comes from giant underground aquifers.

Underneath the West Desert, the aquifer system acts as a storehouse for runoff from the surrounding mountains. As rainwater or snow melt enters or “recharges” the aquifer system, water pressure can build up in some areas. This pressure moves water through cracks and tunnels within the aquifer, and sometimes this water flows out naturally in the form of springs.

These desert springs–and the resulting pools and marshes–permit concentrations of animals and plants not possible under normal desert conditions. You’ll find sedges, rushes cattails and many other wetland plants. Both migratory and year round birds congregate here. There are even a couple of frog species—the Colombian spotted frog and the northern leopard frog.

But most remarkable are the desert spring residents that have survived from the days when the West Desert formed the floor of giant Lake Bonneville. Surveys have revealed a number of relict snails and other mollusks that still persist from that time. Some, like the Black Canyon Pyrg exist at a single spring complex only; they are found nowhere else on earth.

Certain native fish were also left high and dry by Lake Bonneville’s recession. The least chub is a good example. Now the sole member of its genus, this 3-inch long survivor is an unassuming but attractive little minnow. It is olive-colored on top and sports a gold strip on its steel-blue sides. It swims in dense but orderly schools in either flowing or still water. It can withstand both temperature variations and high salinity. The ability to tolerate different physical conditions has undoubtedly helped the least chub survive the post-Lake Bonneville millennium. Even so, the least chub was hanging on in only six different locations until Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources reintroduced it to several more sites within its historic range. The Division and its conservation partners are still working to reduce threats to the least chub, to other spring residents and to the spring habitats themselves.

For more information and pictures go to www.wildaboututah.org

Thanks to Chris Keleher of Utah’s Department of Natural Resources for his help in developing this Wild About Utah story.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Theme: Courtesy & Copyright Don Anderson Leaping Lulu
Image: Least Chub, Mark C. Belk, Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University
Image: Wetlands, Courtesy Utah Geological Survey https://geology.utah.gov/
Text: Holly Strand, Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University

Sources & Additional Reading

Bailey, Carmen L., Kristine W. Wilson Matthew E. Andersen. 2005. CONSERVATION AGREEMENT AND STRATEGY FOR LEAST CHUB (IOTICHTHYS PHLEGETHONTIS) IN THE STATE OF UTAH Publication Number 05-24 Utah Division of Wildlife Resources a division of Utah Department of Natural Resources https://wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/fish/least_chubs.pdf

Jones, Jennifer, Rich Emerson, and Toby Hooker. 2013. Characterizing Condition in At-risk
Wetlands of Western Utah: Phase I UTAH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY a division of Utah Department of Natural Resources,https://geodata.geology.utah.gov/pages/view.php?ref=8364

Nature Serve entry for Least Chub: https://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Iotichthys+phlegethontis

Hanks, Joseph H. and Mark C. Belk. 2004. Threatened fishes of the world: Iotichthys phlegethontis Cope, 1874 (Cyprinidae) in Environmental Biology of Fishes, Vol. 71. N. 4., Kluwer Academic Publishers. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10641-004-1030-x

Sigler W. F. & J. W. Sigler. 1996. Fishes of Utah, A Natural History. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. 375 pp. https://www.amazon.com/Fishes-Utah-A-Natural-History/dp/0874804698

Wasatch Front Canyons Geologic Tour, Virtual Tour created from Published Booklet (pdf) Geologic Guide to the Central Wasatch Front Canyons, Utah Geological Survey, State of Utah, https://utahdnr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=5cf1570b998346d98478a5abd50bf096

Geologic guides to the central Wasatch Front Canyons, Utah Geological Survey, 2005, https://geology.utah.gov/popular/utah-landforms/virtual-tour-central-wasatch-front-canyons/ [updated January 2024]

February 13, 2014April 30, 2016

Til Death Do Us Part

Click for a larger view of a pair of Tundra Swans. Courtesy the US FWS, Tim Bowman, Photographer — Tundra Swan Pair
*Cygnus columbianus*
Courtesy US FWS
Tim Bowman, Photographer

Hi, I’m Holly Strand.

Each year we celebrate Valentine’s Day by expressing our love and devotion to a significant other. While humans are the only species that actually celebrate it, we aren’t the only animals who bond together as couples. Monogamy–or long term pair bonding as animal behaviorists call it–is practiced by over 90 % of birds. Along with a modest number of mammals, including wolves, beavers, voles and gibbons. Even a few fish pair up.

Monogamy may have evolved for different reasons among different groups of animals. For some, female dispersal may have played a role. If females are few and far between–as is the case with white tail ptarmigans–there is a tendency to pair up. Perhaps additional potential mates are too far away too bother. For males, monogamy can save a lot of time and energy. Monogamous males don’t have to fight over females or bother with first time courtship rituals. And by closely guarding a single female , males can protect their genetic investment.

There are advantages for females too. With a mate, you can get a little assistance around the nest or den. Male partners can help incubate eggs, guard against predators and help feed the kids. The fact that male and females are equally suited to care for chicks may explain why monogamy is so much more common among birds. The male improves his chances for reproductive success by investing in just one female’s little ones. The situation is different in mammals. Mammal males just can’t step in and help as much with gestation and lactation. So perhaps that’s why only 3% of mammal species form pair bonds.

The offspring of monogamous pairs tend to be pretty helpless at birth. Having two caregivers means that the you can take more time to mature. This long, slow development leads to larger brain sizes. Humans demonstrate this phenomenon very well as we parent our children longer than any other species on earth!

The tundra swan is Utah’s best example of monogamy in the wild. Young tundra swans date around a bit when they are young, but they eventually settle down with a single mate for life. They build and defend a nest together and raise the kids. But then they stick together the rest of the year as well. Greetings and courtship rituals such as head bobbing and dipping and ritual bathing strengthen their commitment toward each other.

You can see these beautiful swans in massive numbers twice a year when they migrate through Utah. Tens of thousands of them stop by the Great Salt Lake on their way to either the Arctic tundra or to central California.

For sources, pictures, and archives of past programs, go to www.wildaboututah.org

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Image: Courtesy US FWS, images.fws.gov
Text: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading

Limpert, R. J. and S. L. Earnst. 1994. Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: https://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/089

Mocka, Douglas, and Masahiro Fujiokab. 1990. “Monogamy and long-term pair bonding in vertebrates” Trends in Ecology & Evolution. Volume 5, Issue 2, February 1990, Pages 39–43

Reichard, Ulrich and Christoph Boesch. 2003. Monogramy: mating Strategies and Partnerships in Birds, Humans and Other Mammals. Cambridge University Press.

Schultz, Susanne and Robin I.M. Dunbar. 2010. “Bondedness and sociality”
Behaviour, Volume 147, Number 7, 2010 , pp. 775-803(29).

Schultz, Susanne and Robin I.M. Dunbar. 2010. Social bonds in birds are associated with brain size and contingent on the correlated evolution of life-history and increased parental investment. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Volume 100, Issue 1, pages 111–123, May 2010.