MagiStream

In terms of neighborhood lore, the beasts get a little wilder.

I live right down the road from a golf course, where a black bear was spotted a few months ago. This is not the first nor the last one has been seen in my town, but it's certainly the closest to my house.

We also have a bobcat that our neighbors have seen and photographed (not a picture that I have access to, unfortunately). I was fortunate enough to see it a few years ago but, as far as I know, no one's seen it after that.

Here's where things get a little crazy- mountain lion crazy. About three years ago, my next-door neighbors called in a frenzied combination of panic and excitement. They had just seen a mountain lion in their yard. The builders that were working on our house claimed to have spotted it as well, just a little while later. We were skeptical for a while- mountain lions are supposed to be extinct in Connecticut- until one was struck and killed on the highway just a few miles away. That was in 2011 and we haven't seen anything like it since.

I've encountered some rather interesting things while hiking and speed boating, or just kinda being outisde. Nothing too insane though. Here's a list.
-Two baby foxes on the side of a road. They were playfully running around and chasing each other.
-Many, many deer. Three in a forest and one in the backyard of my parents' lakehouse.
-A crayfish just kinda crawling on the ground of a forest, don't know how it got there.
-A couple bald eagles sitting in trees, some flying too.
-A coyote standing across the street from me, we just stared at each other for a few minutes.
-A random peacock. This happens a lot, actually. I don't know where they come from.
-Normal animals in urban regions, squirrels, many types of birds, insects, raccoons, &c.

And a close encounter:
-I found snake skin in my backyard. After analyzing it for a while, determined it was a garter snake.

I have no idea of where to put this under, it could be wildlife or perhaps lifestock...tricky.

Lately, I've been pondering the silkworm and why these insects aren't endangered or extinct. To make silk, you must kill the caterpillar in its cocoon and it takes a lot of caterpillars to make silk. Thus...how is it possible that the silkworm has survived if so many caterpillars are killed off at such a critical period? The life of an adult silkworm is very short as well (most species are unable to take in food).

So...why do we still have the silkworm?

Don't know why I was musing this, but in a book it mentioned the silk-making process and I got to wondering.

Silenxia wrote:I have no idea of where to put this under, it could be wildlife or perhaps lifestock...tricky.

Lately, I've been pondering the silkworm and why these insects aren't endangered or extinct. To make silk, you must kill the caterpillar in its cocoon and it takes a lot of caterpillars to make silk. Thus...how is it possible that the silkworm has survived if so many caterpillars are killed off at such a critical period? The life of an adult silkworm is very short as well (most species are unable to take in food).

So...why do we still have the silkworm?

Don't know why I was musing this, but in a book it mentioned the silk-making process and I got to wondering.

There are a lot of places that raise silkworms (breed them) for reptile feeder insects as well. "Each female will lay between 200 - 500 eggs." so with such a short lifespan, you can breed thousands in a very short amount of time.

I raise mealworms and superworms, and also am looking into hornworms.

I thought they use crickets for reptiles (at least, that seems to be what is in the containers that house the lizards. Kind of nice to watch them catch little little crickets. But dang that is a lot of eggs for a little big, but doesn't it take a lot of silkworms to make clothes?

Silenxia wrote:I thought they use crickets for reptiles (at least, that seems to be what is in the containers that house the lizards. Kind of nice to watch them catch little little crickets. But dang that is a lot of eggs for a little big, but doesn't it take a lot of silkworms to make clothes?

Most silk is cultivated. This means that the moth species that produce silk are raised and farmed much like cattle or chickens might be. Breeding programs mean that certain cocoons are selected and allowed to hatch into adults which can then breed. This also means that far more eggs hatch and far more caterpillars survive to make cocoons that would naturally survive. There is some variation depending on what species of silkmoth you're referring to, but most cultivated silk is from bombyx mori. There are other types of silk, and sometimes you may see something called 'peace silk'. Peace silk means that the cocoons were allowed to hatched instead of being stifled and reeled or otherwise processed. Most silks are produced by stifling the cocoon though, and the pupa is often kept and used as a protein source for both humans and animals.

Silenxia wrote:I thought they use crickets for reptiles (at least, that seems to be what is in the containers that house the lizards. Kind of nice to watch them catch little little crickets. But dang that is a lot of eggs for a little big, but doesn't it take a lot of silkworms to make clothes?

Reptiles like variety, too. Some will stop eating if you don't give them variety. Plus, different bugs give them different things. Like hornworms are naturally loaded with calcium. Crickets are also only good up to a certain size. There are a lot of reptiles that won't eat bugs that are too small.

does my incredibly rude Dragon Mao count?

I live on a farm and so have a lot of interaction with animals, though one of the most interesting (excluding my 3 month safariing in Africa) is the rehabilitation of a small young bird who fell from the nest in my garden. It was a tiny house sparrow baby, just not young enough to leave the nest and so we fed it with a peppet and chicken crumb (chicken food for hand raised chicks we have) It was interesting learning how to angle he responded to to feed and is tiny little gripping feet :3

Finally got a decent picture of the golden eagle that I see occasionally around the main highway in/out of town =D

It's carrying a weed, nest maintenance, perhaps?

And then after several months of not seeing them, the local pronghorns made an appearance.

Just hanging out

Meanwhile, I saw this a couple days ago and well, it's a bird, obviously, but if you zoom in real close, it looks like it's carrying something that I can identify (or it just has really big, weird looking feet) 'w' I also can't tell if it's a gull or light colored hawk *3*