Tag: ecology
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Dispatches from Somewhere #1: What a Wasp
I’ve had this picture on my camera roll for almost a year now and I figured I should finally get to posting it. If you’re wondering what this scorpion looking flying insect is, it’s the Pelecinus polyturator, a type of wasp. The adults drink nectar and are pretty harmless, unless…
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The Danger Zone
This was originally written as an essay in 2015 based on a New Yorker article by Elizabeth Kolbert entitled “A New Climate-Change Danger Zone?” and reflects my opinions at the time. Much has changed in the world and the climate crisis has only gotten worse and my understanding of that…
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Become a Wildlife Ambassador
So, here’s the thing: we, at this moment, are rolling out a new newy thing. It’s super cool—the Wildlife Ambassador program! Basically, when you become a member at Patreon.com/TheWildLife, you can pick a species of some kind of personal importance to you and we will donate 10% of your contributions…
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Is it a Worm? Is it a Wasp? No! It’s the Elm Sawfly!
This past weekend as I sat below an old oak tree while drinking my morning cup of coffee and looking out on a glassy Lake Darling in Alexandria, Minnesota, something fell from the sky and landed at my feet. Small and curled up like a slightly puff green and yellow…
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Sunday Fish Sketch| The Cookiecutter Shark
Prepare to learn about a whole new kind of Cookie Monster on this #SharkWeek themed #SundayFishSketch…and this one glows!
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The Trouble with Trilobites
It’s #FossilFriday, and you know what that means—fossils. Big surprise, right? This week, with an unoriginal but begging to be used titular parody on the classic Star Trek episode ‘The Trouble with Tribbles”—we’re talking trilobites. Here is my trilobite. It was a gift from my brother (podcast co-host) he picked…
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Hoary Puccoon
This #WildflowerWednesday, we take a look at one of my personal favorites—the Hoary Puccoon.
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Sunday Fish Sketch| The Common Sea Dragon
This #SundayFishSketch comes from Ichthyologist, Rene Martin. Visit her shop on InPrint to see more of her artwork or to order prints! Meet the Common Sea Dragon Phyllopteryx taeniolatus While it may be a dragon by name, the Common Sea Dragon is no more a dragon than a sea horse is a…
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#SundayFishSketch Banded Scuplin
The banded sculpin (Cottus carolinae) is a mottled brown freshwater fish with dark vertical bands native to swift moving streams of the eastern United States where they dine on insects, various larvae, and occasionally, though sparingly, on other smaller fish or crustaceans.
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This Ghostly, Parasitic Plant Survives by Hacking the Wood Wide Web
A random find while hiking that lead to a life history story that was unexpectedly fascinating.
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ATTACK OF THE BRYOZOANS
If you’ve ever seen a gelatinous blob of ick floating in the water and wondered what type of alien life you were seeing, it was probably a Bryozoan, and they’re honestly pretty neat.
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Carrion my Wayward Beetle
This is circle of life—or at least an ugly, albeit necessary, curve of it. This is the life of the American Carrion Beetle.
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S1E8 Leave it to Beavers
In this episode, Devon and Richard go on a totally real, not-recorded-indoors, time travel adventure to explore the life history of the busiest mammal out there—the beaver.
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#SundayFishSketch Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish
The Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish is found in the coastal river drainages of the Sunshine State, Florida, over to southern Georgia.
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It’s Turtle Time! How YOU Can Help Turtles Cross Roads Safely
This time of year, it’s common to see turtles crossing roads and trails. Here’s why and how to help them do it safely!
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The Electric-Light-Loving, Scuba-Diving, Toe-Biting, Giant Water Bug
Toe-Biter, Electric-Light Bug, Alligator-Tick; people have come up with many names for the fascinating critter. It’s actual name is perhaps the most boring—the Giant Water Bug. They are the largest of the ‘true bugs’ and belong to the Belostomatidae family of insects.
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S1E7: The Air We Breathe
In this episode, Devon and Richard talk to Dr Julie Koester of UNC-Wilmington and Dr Orly Levithan of Rutgers about the truth behind where our oxygen comes from, and the tiny organisms we have to thank for our very existence.
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Not a Lemur, Nor a Cat. This Raccoon-Like Critter is a “Clever Fox”.
That adorable creature is none other than a Ringtail, Bassariscus astutus. No, not like a lemur—though the resemblance is uncanny.
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This Toxic, Nectarless Flower is Spread by Ants
Bloodroot is a perennial native to North America and blooms between March and May. It’s called Bloodroot because if you were to break open the stem or roots, it bleeds. If you’ve ever done so, congratulations, you are a murderer—just kidding. The “blood” is a sap and is a deep,…
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Frogs Thought to be Extinct may be Fighting Back Against Skin-Eating Fungus
The disease is an aggressive fungal infection called chytridiomycosis. It is caused by a type of chytrid fungus, colloquially known as Bd, which is shorthand for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.
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S1E5 It’s Not Easy Being Green: Canary in the Coal Mine
In the mid-season premiere, we tell the story of two Harvard professors with a bucket of frogs and a rooftop, solve the decade old mystery of exploding toads in Germany, identify the culprit of frog deformities across the Western US, speak with Dr. Voyles about her research on disease ecology…
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#SundayFishSketch: Butterflyfish
Butterflyfish area group of around 120 species in the Family Chaetodontidae. The one in this weeks #SundayFishSketch is the Copperband butterflyfish.
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It’s Asian Lady Beetle-Mania!
The Asian Lady Beetles are back with a vengeance for their annual autumn invasion.
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Eco-Break S1E2: The History of Life on Earth, Part 1
14 billion years ago, the universe as we know it didn’t exist. It was smaller than an atom and more hot and dense than anything we could imagine and then…BANG! The Big Bang, in less than a second, the most fantastic mess of all time was made, expanding outward to…
