Category: Vertebrates

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Aquatic Insects, Harbingers of Health

Aquatic Insects, Harbingers of Health
Skwala (Large Springflies)
Stonefly Nymph
Courtesy & Copyright
Robert Newell
As found on
TroutNut.com

Aquatic Insects, Harbingers of HealthMayfly nymph
Courtesy & Copyright
Leo Kenney, Vernal Pool Association

Aquatic Insects, Harbingers of HealthNorthern caddisfly Larvae

Limnephilidae
Photo Credit:
Howard Ensign Evans,
Colorado State University,
Bugwood.org
Used under
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
License.

Hi, this is Mark Larese-Casanova from the Utah Master Naturalist Program at Utah State University Extension.

As we officially enter summer, it’s easy to notice nature at its peak. Wildflowers are in bloom, birds are feeding their young, and insects fill the air. Life is especially robust near our wetlands, lakes, and streams.

Our aquatic, or wet, ecosystems provide habitat to abundant plants and animals. Only 1% of Utah is wet, but over 80% of all wildlife in Utah depend on aquatic ecosystems for at least part of their life cycle. However, the quality of Utah’s aquatic habitats is often affected by chemical pollution or excessive nutrients and sediment.

Some organisms, including many aquatic insects, only live in the healthiest of aquatic habitats. Many of the insects we see in summer live in the water when young, during the larval or nymph stage, before becoming adults. Three insects in particular- mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies- require especially clean, cold streams low in nutrients and high in dissolved oxygen to survive.

Mayflies are aquatic as nymphs and emerge from the water to live as adults for just a day. The external feather-like gills of the nymphs can be seen fluttering along the sides of their abdomen. They feed by scraping algae from rocks.

Stonefly nymphs are well adapted to living among the rocks of swift-moving streams. Their hooked legs grasp the slick rocks as they shred apart plant litter that falls into the stream.

Caddisfly larvae spin a sort of spider silk to glue rocks or sticks together to form a case in which they live. They will also build webs underwater to collect small particles of food that drift by.

The quality of a stream habitat can be assessed by counting the number of different species, or types, of mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies. A greater number of species generally means that habitat and water quality are higher. Dramatic decreases in insect diversity from season to season or year to year can signal a decline in stream health. Monitoring aquatic insects over time gives us an accurate picture of the long-term health of our stream ecosystems.

For more information about monitoring water quality and aquatic insects, visit Utah State University Water Quality Extension’s website. Once there, you’ll find a wealth of information about monitoring Utah’s aquatic ecosystems, including Utah Water Watch, a statewide volunteer citizen science program.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Mark Larese-Casanova.

Credits:
Images: Northern caddisfly larvae, Howard Ensign Evans,
            Colorado State University
            Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
            Stonefly Nymph, © Robert Newell, displayed on Troutnut.com
            Mayfly nymph, © Leo Kenney Vernal Pool Association
Text:     Mark Larese-Casanova, Utah Master Naturalist Program
            at Utah State University Extension.

Additional Reading:

Larese-Casanova, M. Utah Master Naturalist Watersheds Wildlife Field Guide. Utah State University Extension. 2012. https://extension.cart.usu.edu/Details.cfm?ProdID=41&category=0

USU Water Quality Extension. Utah Stream Team Manual. https://extension.usu.edu/waterquality/htm/citizen_monitoring/ust

Voshell, J. R. A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America. The McDonald and Woddward Publishing Company. 2002. https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Common-Freshwater-Invertebrates-America/dp/0939923874

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Cats vs. Wildlife

Rooster, the Stokes Nature Center Housecat
Felis silvestris catus
Copyright 2013
Andrea Liberatore, Photographer

This past winter we took on a new staff member at the Stokes Nature Center. In exchange for room and board, he lives in our building and is on call 24 hours a day. He’s arguably our most popular employee, but I’m not jealous. Rooster is, after all, cuter than me. He’s also a cat.

As one of the only buildings for miles around, we attract a lot of mice. Taking on a cat seemed like a fun and ecological answer to a frustrating long-term problem. Obviously, this isn’t a new idea. Cats and humans have been coexisting for thousands of years – probably since the time our ancestors were developing agriculturally-based societies in the Middle East 12,000 years ago. With agriculture came grain storage, and with grain storage came mice. Cats quickly became an important part of our food security system.

As humans spread around the globe, our newly domesticated feline friends came along too. But while most of us keep cats for reasons other than their hunting prowess these days, they have retained the skills that attracted us to them in the first place. Cats are predators. Even when they’re fed at home, and have no need for additional calories, their hunting instincts don’t dissipate. A recent study estimated that cats in the US alone kill around 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion small mammals every year. These statistics make cats the number one anthropogenic threat to wildlife.

Utah’s wildlife evolved in an environment void of small feline predators, and their behaviors reflect this. Ground-nesting birds such as quail, nightjars, and killdeer are especially prone to predation. Domestic cats are a non-native species against which many of our birds and mammals have few defenses.

So what can you do to help? The most straightforward answer is to keep your cat indoors. If however, you insist he goes out, there are still a few things you can do to keep neighborhood animals a little safer. Attaching a bell to your cat’s collar can warn wildlife that she’s around. If your yard is a haven for birds and mammals, provide dense vegetation for them to take refuge in. And of course, spay and neuter cats to avoid bringing any more unwanted felines into the world. There are already more stray and feral cats in the US than there are loving homes for them. Controlling cat populations can save the lives of millions of birds and small mammals.

If the welfare of birds and mammals isn’t enough to motivate you, consider that research shows your cat is safer, and will live longer, if kept indoors. An innovative study by the University of Georgia – dubbed ‘Kitty Cams’ – can give you a sense of what your cat might be up to during the day. Small cameras attached to the collars of housecats record not only wildlife kills, but also fights with neighborhood dogs and opossums, and trips into storm sewers, across busy roads, and into the undercarriages of parked cars.

So far, Rooster is earning his keep. We have noticed a wonderful decrease in nibbled-on file folders and tiny footprints in desktop dust. But we don’t want our outdoor critters to decrease in numbers, and so despite his (sometimes very vocal) desires, he will remain an indoor feline. For the sake of all our Utah wildlife, I hope you consider doing the same.

For a photo of Rooster, a link to the Kitty Cams site, and more suggestions on keeping wildlife safe from cats, visit our website at www.wildaboututah.org .

For the Stokes Nature Center and Wild About Utah, this is Andrea Liberatore.

Credits:

Photos: Courtesy & © Andrea Liberatore
Text:    Andrea Liberatore, Stokes Nature Center, logannature.org

Additional Reading:

Loss, S. R., Will, T., Marra, P. P. (2013) The Impact of Free-ranging Domestic Cats on Wildlife of the United States. Nature Communications 4, Article number: 1396 Accessible online at: https://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n1/abs/ncomms2380.html

Angier, Natalie (2013) That Cuddly Kitty is Deadlier Than You Think. New York Times. Published January 29, 2013. Accessible online at: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/science/that-cuddly-kitty-of-yours-is-a-killer.html

The National Geographic & University of Georgia Kitty Cams (Crittercam) Project: A window into the world of free-roaming cats. Accessible online at: https://www.kittycams.uga.edu/

National Audubon Society. (2013) Reducing Threats from Cats. Available online at: https://web4.audubon.org/bird/at_home/safecats.html

Zax, David (2007) A Brief History of House Cats. Smithsonian Institution. Accessible online at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/brief_cats.html

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Blind Snakes

Click for a larger view of Western Blind Snake in a bucket, Leptotyphlops humilis. Courtesy and Copyright 2006 John S. Ascher, Photographer, https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20p?see=I_JSA1964&res=640
Western Blind Snake
Leptotyphlops humilis
Courtesy & Copyright 2006
John S. Ascher, Photographer

If you’re unfamiliar with blindsnakes, don’t worry; most people haven’t heard of them. The 400 species of these seriously strange serpents are mostly tropical. Two species do occur in the southwestern United States, including western Washington County in Utah. They are small, many no larger than a shoelace, and have smooth scales and small eyes.

Blindsnakes typically live underground in loose, moist soil, so you are most likely to find one when gardening. If you do, don’t be alarmed – these tiny snakes are harmless and beneficial. Look closely, or you might mistake one for a worm due to its pinkish color. A black light can be used to tell the difference, as Utah blindsnakes glow fluorescent like scorpions. Blindsnakes eat ants, termites, centipedes and spiders. They can help control populations of these invertebrate pests around your home.

Their jaw architecture is unique. The jaws work like tiny scoops to shovel the larvae and pupae of ants and termites into their mouths. Unlike most snakes, who only eat once every few weeks, blindsnakes consume huge numbers of prey items very quickly. One Australian Blackish Blindsnake was seen to ingest over 1,400 ant larvae without pause!

Biologists in Texas report that screech owls sometimes carry live blindsnakes to their nests. Up to fifteen live among the chicks. Nests with blindsnakes have fewer mites, insects and spiders. Owlets in these nests survived and grew faster than owlets from nests without blindsnakes. This amazing mutualism may have evolved long ago. At over 100 million years old, blindsnakes are the oldest living group of snakes. Although considered primitive, blindsnakes are incredibly successful, if secretive, members of our modern serpent fauna.

Today’s program was written by Andrew Durso of Utah State University’s biology department.

Our theme music was composed by Don Anderson and is performed by Leaping Lulu.

Credits:

Theme: Courtesy & Copyright Don Anderson as performed by Leaping Lulu
Images: Courtesy & Copyright 2006 John S. Ascher, Photographer
Text: Andrew Durso, https://www.biology.usu.edu/htm/our-people/graduate-students?memberID=6753

Additional Reading:

Screech Owls and Blindsnakes: An Unlikely Mutualism, Life is Short, But Snakes are Long, A blog about snake natural history and herpetology research, Andrew Durso, February 28, 2013, https://snakesarelong.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

Western Blind Snake (Leptotyphlops humilis), Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, Washington County HCP Administration, http://www.redcliffsdesertreserve.com/western-blind-snake

Feeding Mechanisms of Blindsnakes, Mandibular raking in Leptotyphlopidae, Video Clips, The Kley Lab, Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, The State University of New York, https://renaissance.stonybrookmedicine.edu/anatomy/people/facultypage/kley/videos

[Page Updated February 11, 2026]

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Yesterday’s Camels

Yesterday’s camel
Courtesy Wikimedia,
Arthur Weasley, Artist
Licensed under
GNU Free Documentation License

Utah locations where
ancient camel bones
were discovered.
Courtesy BerkeleyMapper,
created by
Berkeley Natural History Museums,
UC Berkeley at https://berkeleymapper.berkeley.edu/_

Map data ©2013Google,
INEGI Imagery, © 2013 Terra Metrics

Hyrum Museum
Courtesy Holly Strand, Photographer

Hi, I’m Holly Strand.

There’s a small, but very engaging museum underneath the public library in Hyrum UT. This museum showcases a number of artifacts reflecting the history, customs and environment of Cache Valley. When I first visited in 2009, a couple of odd items caught my eye. One was an enormous hairball that had formed in the stomach of a Cache Valley cow. Such hairballs are called bezoars, a Persian word meaning “antidote.” Centuries ago, bezoars were believed to be a universal antidote that could neutralize any poison.

The other odd item at the museum was a camel tooth. Now a cow hairball can seem geographically appropriate as Cache Valley has plenty of cows. But why would a camel tooth be in a museum about the history of Northern Utah?

Well it turns out that this particular tooth belonged to a native Utah camel species. It most likely came from we now call Yesterday’s camel (or Western camel) which lived over 10,000 years ago. This camel was twenty percent larger than a dromedary and had a longer, narrower head and thick muscled lips. Its footpad was soft and toes were splayed, approaching the foot structure of modern camels. We don’t really know whether or not Yesterday’s camel had a hump. Remains of this Pleistocene ancestor have been found throughout the American West and in a number of UT locations.

Further, I was surprised to learn that camels are a purely North American invention, first appearing some 40- 50 million years ago. At the peak of their North American career–during the Miocene–there were 13 genera of camels. Overall, at least 95 species in 36 genera have been described for this continent alone.

The earliest camel was no more than 2 feet high. After that we find camel legs and necks grew longer to allow browsing on trees and shrub tops. One particular species (Aepycamelus giraffinus ) stood 19 feet high. Essentially this camel had become America’s giraffe on what was then a Serengeti-like plain.

Other camels resembled gazelles, and still others looked more like the camelids of today.

4 million years ago, camelids first crossed the land bridge to Eurasia . Living in Eurasian deserts, they evolved into arid land specialists with a remarkable physiological capacity for water conservation.

Other North American camelids drifted south to colonize South America. They evolved into today’s llamas, guanacos, alpacas, and vicunas—all high altitude grazing specialists.

After a few waves of migration, camels suddenly vanished from their birthplace. In fact much of the North America’s megafauna suddenly vanished in the late Pleistocene. Perhaps due to human hunting, perhaps climate change. We may never know for sure.

But one thing is clear to me now–a camel tooth definitely has a place in a Utah history museum.

For more information and sources, and a link to the Hyrum Museum, go to www.wildaboututah.org

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Image: Courtesy Wikimedia, Arthur Weasley, Photographer
          Courtesy & Copyright © Holly Strand, Photographer
          Courtesy BerkeleyMapper, created by Berkeley Natural History Museums,
          UC Berkeley at https://berkeleymapper.berkeley.edu/_
          Map data ©2013Google,
          INEGI Imagery, © 2013 Terra Metrics
Text: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading

Flannery, Tim. 2001. The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and its Peoples, NY: Grove Press.
https://www.amazon.com/Eternal-Frontier-Ecological-History-byFlannery/dp/B004XOXF06

Honey, J. J. Harrison, D. Prothero, M. Stevens, 1998. Camelidae. In:
C. Janis, K. Scott, L Jacobs, (eds.), Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America, Vol. 1. Terrestrial carnivores, ungulates and ungulate-like mammals, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UKIrwin, Robert. 2010. Camel. London : Reaktion Books
https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Tertiary-Mammals-North-America/dp/0521619688

San Diego Zoo Global. 2009. Extinct Western Camel, Camelops hesternus
https://library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/_extinct/camel_extinct_western/extinctcamel.htm [Accessed at time of publication – Note from Library.SanDiegoZoo.org 11/24/2024: The SDZWA Staff Publications Repository and Zoonooz/Journal Index are both unavailable as we work with a new vendor to provide users a better searching experience. Please contact the Library team, or check back here soon, for more information.]

Hyrum Museum
50 West Main Street
Hyrum, UT 84319
435-245-0208
https://hyrumcitymuseum.org/