NatureWILD Magazine for Young Naturalists in British Columbia
Why Did the Toad Cross the Road?
Volume 14 Issue 1 2013
The White Sturgeon A Painted Turtle. Photo by Krysia Tuttle. www.geog.ubc.ca/ biodiversity/efauna/
Saving the Western Painted Turtle The
Robin and the Wasp
www.ync.ca
“Young Naturalists Observe and Conserve�
Inside...
3 4 6 8
Animal Crossword Western Painted Turtle White Sturgeon
Why did the Toad Cross the Road?
11 Park Ranger 12 Robin and the Wasp 14 Ask Al 15 NatureWILD News
16 Wetlands
Word search
Questions? Comments? Ian McKeachie, President info@ync.ca Kristine Webber, Executive Director kristinewebber@ync.ca Tammy Keetch, Clubs Coordinator coordinator@ync.ca Tracy Green, Membership and Office Coordinator info@ync.ca NatureWILD Editorial Committee Content Editor: Daphne Solecki Production Editor: Monica Belko Editorial Assistant: Ruth Foster Contributor: Al Grass
1620 Mt. Seymour Rd. North Vancouver, BC V7G 2R9
www.ync.ca 2
Hello YNC Members, Spring is beginning and with it all kinds of new life is appearing outdoors. Now is the time to go outside and follow the YNC motto to observe and conserve! Keep your eyes open and try to find Western Toads or Western Painted Turtles. There are stories in this issue about both. When I was a boy I spent lots of time in and near ponds and creeks and in the forest where I saw both of these species. If you like you can help conserve habitat too. Ask your parents or your YNC leader about ways you can take part in conservation work in your community. Growing up on Vancouver Island I was lucky to spend lots of time there with the Streamkeepers, cleaning up streams and ponds. I learned a lot and had so much fun, and you can do it too. Have fun out there everyone! Ian McKeachie, President Young Naturalists’ Club of British Columbia - info@ync.ca
YNC is an exciting nature discovery and environmental action program
that invites young people ages 5-12 years to discover nearby nature on Explorer Days with local experts, learn about native wildlife and plants in NatureWILD Magazine and take part in environmental actions to protect their habitat with the Action Awards program. For more information: www.ync.ca.
Nature Clubs across BC
Check out the interactive map at www.ync.ca to find a club near you! Lower Mainland - Vancouver, LM Home Learners, North Vancouver, Stanley Park, Burke Mountain, Eastern Fraser Valley, Nicomekl, University Hill Elementary, Lord Kitchener Elementary, Carnarvon Elementary, Anmore Elementary, James Kennedy Elementary, Tri-Cities, Grandview Elementary, Nightingale Elementary, Ecole Jules Quesnel Vancouver Island - Victoria,Victoria Home Learners, Cowichan Valley, Cowichan Valley Home Learners, Nanaimo, Nanaimo 10+, Oceanside (Parksville/Qualicum), Comox Valley, North Vancouver Island, Queen Margaret’s School, Port Alberni Gulf Islands - Denman Island, Quadra Island, Mayne Island Central Coast - Shearwater Elementary, Bella Bella Community School Thompson/Okanagan - Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Kelowna, North Okanagan, Lillooet Home Learners, North Shuswap Elementary ‘Bugs R Us’, Carlin Elementary Kootenays - Nelson, Rocky Mountain (Cranbrook)
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d r o w s s o r C l a m An i
Challenge your animal knowledge! Try the ....
DOWN
1 - Large mammal that can wander into urban neighbourhoods 3 - Reptile that has a shell 5 - Loves to fly acrobatically above ponds catching insects (a type of bird) 7 - Mammal that can dam up rivers 9 - Rare Vancouver Island mammal 11- Large rodent with a long tail 13- Flying insect that is red with black spots 15- Black with a white stripe down its back and can be smelly!
ACROSS
2 - Loves to eat acorns and is good at getting into bird-feeders 4 - Large raptor with a white head 6 - Marine mammal that likes to eat fish and sunbathe on rocks 8 - Long-eared, bushy tailed and is good at hopping 10- Large graceful white bird 12- Hoot! Hoot! 14- BC’s only native cat Answers on page 15
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Saving the Western Painted Turtle By Vicki Parnell
A turtle digging a nest. Photo by Vicki Parnell.
Last June, on a warm evening by Burnaby Lake something marvellous was happening. All around female turtles were crawling, one by one, out of the water onto land to find a safe place to lay their eggs. For several weeks past they had been cautiously poking their heads out of the water, scoping out the area - a small, sandy beach beside the lake. Now, as the sun went down, they began the hard work of choosing a nesting site, digging a hole and carefully covering up their precious eggs. Watching from a safe distance, I knew a small miracle was unfolding. I’m a volunteer with the Coastal Painted Turtle Recovery Project, and my task was simple: sit quietly near a nesting beach created especially for the turtles at Burnaby Lake and observe the turtles for a few hours, one evening a week.
A turtle digging a hole. Photo by Vicki Parnell.
Each time I saw a mother turtle heading toward a busy nearby trail, I gently returned her to the fenced-off sandy beach to encourage her to choose a safer nesting site. As soon as the mother turtle laid some eggs, I put a special basket over the nest to protect it from predators.
Why are volunteers doing this? The Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) is considered a Species at Risk in British Columbia. It is the only native pond turtle left in BC, and there are fewer every year. By finding and protecting those precious turtle nests, conservationists hope to increase the population of Western Painted Turtles. It seems to be working - over the past few years since the special nesting beach was built, volunteers have noticed a remarkable increase in the number of nesting mother turtles.
A turtle digging a hole. Photo by Vicki Parnell.
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Why are the numbers of Western Painted Turtles going down? Pollution and loss of habitat means there are fewer places where turtles feel safe basking in the sun and digging nests.Volunteers like me are working to make things better for turtles by creating special basking beaches and safe nesting spaces like the one at Burnaby Lake Park. A turtle digging a hole. Photo by Vicki Parnell.
What to do if you see a nesting turtle... In June and July, turtles in the lakes and waterways in the southern part of BC get ready to lay their eggs. On a sunny day, you may notice a turtle wandering around near the water in your local park.You may even be lucky enough to see a mother turtle digging a nest. Keep a quiet, respectful distance until she has finished laying her eggs and covered them. It’s very important to stay back – it’s natural to want look closer but turtles are shy and easily frightened off from nesting. She may appear to be “stuck” in a hole, bobbing up and down and struggling to climb out - in fact she is using her powerful hind legs to dig a nice deep hole. She needs to be left alone to finish this hard work. Once she has laid her eggs, the mother turtle covers the nest. When she has left, mark the nest site (because it is very hard to find once the female has left) by hanging flagging tape above it or marking the ground beside the nest. Immediately report it to BC Frogwatch www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/frogwatch or to the Coastal Painted Turtle Recovery Project at wptrecovery@gmail.com .
“Always leash your dog and keep it close when walking near waterways that might be home to turtles.” Vicki Parnell loves observing nature and wildlife at the urban lakes near her home in Burnaby, BC. She was previously a co-leader of the YNC Vancouver Homelearners club for two years.
A Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans). Not native to BC, this turtle is often seen because people release pet turtles into lakes. Photo by Rosemary Taylor. www.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/efauna/
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The White Sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus)
By Daphne Solecki
Did you know that some of the largest, heaviest and most ancient freshwater fish in the world live in a few of British Columbia’s lakes and rivers?
A living fossil
The sturgeon is sometimes called a ‘living fossil’ because it evolved more than 100 million years ago and has not changed much since. When fish first evolved they did not have jaws – they sucked up their food. They also did not have a backbone. Instead, they had a rod made of cartilage (the same flexible material your ears are made of). That rod is called a notochord. Over millions of years, these primitive fish evolved. Most fish today do have jaws and backbones but lamprey, hagfish and sturgeon are fish which still suck up food and have a notochord instead of a backbone just like their ancient ancestors. Here are more ways sturgeon differ from most other fish: • No scales: a sturgeon doesn’t have scales – it has a bony skull plate and five rows of scutes - horny plates that look like armour. • Tube Mouth: a sturgeon’s mouth is a tube on the underside of its head that stays tucked inside until the sturgeon finds food. Then the tube extends out and ‘vacuums’ up the food. The sturgeon spits out any non-food, like gravel, that was accidentally sucked in. • Barbels: a sturgeon has four sensitive whiskers, or ‘barbels’, that stick out of the snout in front of the mouth. Sturgeon have poor eyesight so they use their barbels to find food, especially in murky water.
Feeding
With their snouts, sturgeon stir up the soft bottom of the lake or river and use their barbels to detect shells, crustaceans and small fish. They don’t have any teeth so they can’t grab hold of prey; however, bigger sturgeon can swallow very large prey items including whole salmon.
How big do Sturgeon grow? A White Sturgeon.
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The sturgeon is one of the few animals that keeps growing as long as it lives. Those in BC waters may live over one hundred years, grow to 6 m in length and weigh up to 635 kg. Recently a huge sturgeon was caught in the Fraser River. It was almost 4 m long and weighed 500 kg, so it must have been very old!
Breeding
Even under the best of conditions, sturgeon produce very few offspring. This is why: • They are slow growing. - Male sturgeon don’t mature until they are 12 to 18 years old, females until they are 25 to 30 years old. • Females only spawn (produce eggs) every 4 to 10 years. • Female sturgeon do not dig a nest or “redd” in the gravel for their eggs (as salmon do). Instead, the male sturgeon swims beside the female and releases his milt as the same time the female releases her eggs into the water. This is a very hit and miss way of reproduction as an egg will only get fertilized if it happens to contact some milt as they get mixed together in the fast flowing river.
Where do White Sturgeon live?
White sturgeon are found only in freshwater on the west coast of BC and the northern United States. In BC, sturgeon are found in the Nechako, Fraser, Columbia and Kootenay Rivers.
A juvenile White Sturgeon.
First Nations
First Nations consider this a sacred fish. Indeed, it must have been wonderful to live on a river that was home to these huge fish. Many different First Nations used to come together in the spring at sturgeon spawning sites to share in the harvest. Some traditional sturgeon spawning sites have been used by First Nations for over 3,000 years.
A sturgeon caught in 1912 more than a hundred years ago.
Fishing for Sturgeon Like so many other species, sturgeon were overfished once Europeans came to BC. Their populations have also been harmed by pollution, gravel removal and particularly by dams in rivers which divert water or make it too shallow for sturgeon to breed.
The ventral (or underside) view of a White Sturgeon.
It has been illegal to harvest (catch and eat) sturgeon since 1994. These days, people still fish for sturgeon in the Fraser River but only catch-and-release. They can take a photo and then put the sturgeon back in the river.
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Why Did the Toad Cross the Road?
Article and Photos by Elke Wind
Have you ever seen a frog or a toad? Can you tell the difference between them? Two differences are - frogs have smooth, wetlooking skin while toads have drier, bumpy skin. Frogs hop but toads usually crawl along the ground.
The toads in this story are Western Toads (Anaxyrus boreas). They live throughout the Pacific Northwest, from Alaska and British Columbia all the way down the west coast of the United States to Mexico.
Adult toads breed in spring at wetlands and lakes across BC.
So why did the toad cross the road? Adult toads live in dry habitats like forests but they have to lay their eggs in water, so in spring they move towards wetlands and lakes to breed. There they lay their strings of eggs which hatch into jet-black tadpoles in about 7 to 10 days. In midsummer, the tadpoles change into tiny toadlets about the size of penny. Then it is time for them to leave the wetlands where they were born and move to dry land where they will grow into adults. This is a time when large numbers of toadlets can be seen travelling from breeding sites onto land. As adult toads and toadlets move to and from wetlands and forests their migration routes sometimes cross busy roads. Many of them are killed by passing vehicles.
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Unlike other amphibian species that lay their eggs in a round mass, Western Toads lay their eggs in strings.
Female toads can lay up to 10,000 eggs; these hatch into black tadpoles that cluster together in the water.
A volunteer holding a handful of tiny toadlets.
What can people do to help toads cross roads? In some places where large toad migrations are known to occur, tunnels are built under the road to help them get to the other side safely. In places with no tunnels, local volunteers work together to move toads across the road. How else can you help a toad cross the road? Well, there are two main ways. Some volunteers carry buckets and walk along the shoulder of the road scooping up the tiny toadlets before they cross the road. Once the toadlets are safely in the bucket, the volunteers carry them across the road to release them into forest habitat.
Little toadlets were collected along the side of the road, before they could be hit by passing cars, and released safely on the other side.
Toadlets walking along beside the fence fall into buried buckets that hold them safely until a volunteer can move them across the road.
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Why Did the Toad Cross the Road? continued... Other times, volunteers dig buckets into the ground and install small fences that guide the toadlets into the buckets; there they are trapped but safe until a volunteer takes them across the road and empties them out in the place they wanted to go to. There are numerous places in British Columbia where people help toads cross the road, including the Fraser Valley, Nakusp, Duncan, and Merville. If you time it just right (the migration time varies from year to year but usually takes place in early August), you can watch toadlets following the elk fencing and crossing under the highway using wildlife tunnels north of Courtenay near Hamm Road.
Temporary fencing is installed to guide toadlets towards buried bucket traps that hold them safely until a volunteer can move them across the road.
At Wake Lake, near Duncan on Vancouver Island, approximately 350,000 toadlets were moved across the road by volunteers in 2012. Can you even imagine so many toadlets trying to cross the road? If you would like to help toadlets and other amphibians cross roads safely, please contact the BC Frogwatch program when you see large numbers of amphibians on the road. Check www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/frogwatch/ for information.
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Volunteers near Wake Lake prepare temporary fencing to guide toadlets towards traps and keep them off the road.
Elke Wind first became interested in amphibians in 1993 when she started her graduate degree research at UBC. Since then, she has spent 20 years studying habitat management for amphibians across the province. Elke has been a Leader of the Nanaimo 10+ YNC since 2004.
Have you ever thought about being a Park Ranger? By Kristine Webber For twelve years Peter Robinson worked as a Park Ranger in several BC Parks including Manning Park and Liard River Hotsprings Park. He tells us what it’s like: “A Ranger’s job is to see that all is well in the park. Most people think that being a Park Ranger is about mountains, rivers and animals - and I certainly saw lots of animals Stone sheep along the Alaska Highway, grizzly bears in the northern parks, black bears in the south and hoary marmots in Manning Park. But when you come right down to it, a Park Ranger deals mostly with people. Parks are created to protect Nature, and the biggest problem for Nature is quite often the people who visit the parks!
Park Ranger Peter Robinson. Photo: P. Robinson.
Rangers also are the first people to respond to emergencies - rescuing people in very difficult locations - back country trails, rivers, ski slopes, or even wilderness campsites. My most memorable rescue was saving two people from drowning after their vehicle plunged over a bank into a river. Helping save people is one of the highs of being a Park Ranger. There are not many positions for Park Rangers, so if you want to be one you will have to work hard.You need to be good at outdoor activities (skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, canoeing); you need to study wildlife and park management and you need to start visiting and learning about parks early in life. Living and working in wilderness is a very cool job. I lived in a small cabin when I was in the North; the view from my front window was a very tall mountain and a very beautiful lake. Waking up to all this beauty is a memory I have kept with me all my life.” The Manning Park direction sign. Peter Robinson is now CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation.
The Manning Park sign. Photo: BC Parks.
Photo by K. Webber.
The Manning Park Ranger station. Photo by K. Webber.
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A read-aloud story
The Robin and the Wasp
Wasp was very nosy. She liked flying around the garden in spring, sticking her nose into everything as she looked for insects to eat. Wasp knew where Squirrel hid nuts. She knew where Swallow went in winter. She knew where Skunk slept. There was nothing going on in the garden that she didn’t know about. Or so she thought. Robin kept a beady eye on her neighbours too. While she was looking for worms or berries to eat, she found out how Spider spun his web, how Tadpole turned into a frog and where Jay buried his nuts. There was nothing about her neighbours that she didn’t know. Or so she thought. One day Wasp saw Robin swoop down on the lawn. “Oooh,” she said “I wonder what Robin is up to now?” Robin picked up a twig. “A twig” said Wasp. “She’s never done that before. What does she want with a twig? She doesn’t eat twigs. Maybe her eyesight is going and she thinks it’s a worm. I must find out.” “Ahem, “she said to Robin. “I couldn’t help noticing that you’ve got a twig in your beak.” “My, what sharp eyes you have!” said Robin, who didn’t like everyone knowing her business. ”There are a lot of things I do that you don’t know about,” said Robin and flew off with the twig. “Well,” said Wasp. “How rude!” The next day Robin spotted Wasp chewing the fence. “How odd. I’ve never seen her do that before. I simply must find out she’s up to!” said Robin. “Ahem,” she said to Wasp. “I couldn’t help noticing that you’re tearing bits of wood from the fence.”
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“Nothing gets past you, does it?” said Wasp, who didn’t like others poking their nose in where it wasn’t wanted. “Not much,” said Robin. “So, what are you doing then?” “There are a lot of things I do that you don’t know about,” said Wasp as she flew off with a moth of chewed wood. “Hmph!” said Robin. “What bad manners!” The next day Robin had a long piece of grass in her beak and Wasp had been collecting more chewed wood. Wasp longed to follow Robin to find out what she was doing. Robin ached to spy on Wasp and discover her secret, but, for once, they were both too busy with their own business. “Ha, if only she knew, Wasp would be so surprised.” said Robin as she flew into the hedge. She put the grass into the middle of a nice new nest to help soften the inside of it for her eggs. “If Robin could see me now she would be so amazed,” said Wasp as she flew high into a tree. There she carried on making her nice new nest out of the paper-thin chewed-up wood. The next time they met they ignored each other. “Hmph!” said Robin. “Tut!” said Wasp. As they both went their own ways, they were both secretly pleased that they had kept their secrets. After all, no other creature would think of building a nest in spring. Or so they thought...
Adapted from a WILD TIMES story, with permission from RSPB Wildlife Explorers.
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Have a Nature Question?
ASK AL Why do grasshoppers make a zapping sound when they fly? I have sometimes seen them flying without making a sound. Question from Henk Vanryswyk, Alexis Creek BC Dear Henk, Thank you very much for your interesting question about why grasshoppers make the snapping (zapping) sound. Grasshoppers make two kinds of sounds depending on the species: 1. Stridulate – made by rubbing a leg on forewing. 2. Crepitate – sounds made by band-winged grasshoppers. You describe it well as a ‘zapping’ sound which they make by snapping their wings. But why they make it is not an easy question to answer. They often do it when they take off – could it be to startle (scare) a potential enemy? It certainly gets my attention! send me more Al says “Please ur question is questions. If yo ill win ureWILD you w ! chosen for Nat ook and pencil b te o n in a -R n -i a Rite c.ca ions to info@yn st e u q r u yo d n e S r Road 1620 Mount Seymou V7G 2R9 North Vancouver, BC
A White-tailed Deer buck (adult male) like Jon saw (see his story on the facing page).
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Al Grass has worked as a career park naturalist and ranger throughout BC. Now he is a well-known nature tour leader and photographer. Al especially likes birds, insects and spiders.
I have a caterpillar and it’s in a cocoon. It’s in a jar with holes at the top, and it is under our trailer. We live in Cranbrook. When do you think it will come out? It’s an Anise swallowtail. Question from Caleb Tam, Cranbrook BC Dear Caleb, It’s very wonderful to be able to see a caterpillar make its cocoon, and then the excitement of waiting until the adult emerges. In our area (Lower Mainland) we look for the adults as early as June. John Acorn in his wonderful book, Butterflies of British Columbia (Lone Pine Publishing) comments that the ‘flight time’ for this species is June to August. I think a good answer to your question is mid-summer. Did you raise the caterpillar? The Anise Swallowtail larva feeds on plants of the Celery Family, like anise, angelica and celery to name a few. An Anise Swallowtail caterpillar. Photo by Al and Jude Grass.
A Whitetailed Deer doe (adult female). Photo by Coolstock.
W r e I D u t a N NEWS L
Have any comments or questions? Email the YNC at info@ync.ca
For this issue we have two stories from YNC members.
Henk Vanryswyk sent us a letter from his home in Chezacut, a remote community in the Chilcotin. He asked Al a question (see facing page). Henk also told these stories. I have a funny story about when a squirrel ran up my pants, on the outside. I was standing on our road watching a squirrel running towards me. It came right to me and climbed my left leg until it was on my knee! I made it go away.
A CommonNighthawk in flight. Drawing by Bob Hines. A CommonNighthawk. Photo by Gavin Keefe Schaefer
Another time I was walking our old dog,Yippy and I saw a huge flock of nighthawks flying around over our yard. It probably was a bunch of families getting together before going south. My last story was when I was again walking Yippy and I saw a bear walking towards the horse pen. I got to the porch of our house, and Papa and Mama came out. Papa scared the bear away.
A White-tailed Deer fawn (juvenile). Photo:
www.forestwander.com.
Deer live in forests and close to water. Sometimes they lose their homes because people cut down trees and stuff like that. Then deer may cross busy streets or even highways to find new homes. Special road signs tell us when deer might cross the road. We should be careful, and slow down. Because if we kill an animal, it will harm the Earth because the killed animal was part of the Earth and we have to get along with animals and Earth.
Animal Crossword DOWN 1-bear 3-turtle 5-swallow 7-beaver 9-marmot 11-rat 13-ladybug 15-skunk
Deer are herbivores; they eat twigs, leaves, berries, fruit, nuts, corn, grass and herbs. They only have front teeth on the lower jaw. Deer mate in the fall. In the spring, the does give birth to young. Baby deer are called fawns and their coats are spotted. Fawns are able to walk 20 minutes after birth to escape from danger. Seems like we will see some fawns around here in the spring, which is soon.
ACROSS 2-squirrel 4-bald eagle 6-seal 8-rabbit 10-swan 12-owl 14-cougar
Jon Hunter Landis YNC Eastern Fraser Valley wrote about Deer in my Backyard. Since we moved to Sumas Mountain, we often see White-tailed Deer. Sometimes we see one deer and other times we see two or three, the whole family. Here what I found out about White-tailed Deer: • Males are called bucks. • Females are does. Bucks lose their antlers every year, but they grow them back. When bucks fight over a doe, they lock their antlers until one of the bucks gets tired.
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Wetlands Word search In bogs, estuaries, marshes, sloughs and swamps - you’ll find many unique and interesting plants and animals. See how many you can find in this word search! PLANTS BULRUSH CATTAIL GRASSES HARDHACK
ANIMALS BATS BEAVER COYOTE CRAYFISH DRAGONFLY GARTER SNAKE
GREAT BLUE HERON MALLARD MINK OWLS PACIFIC TREEFROG RAINBOW TROUT RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
PEAT RED ALDER SEDGES SUNDEW WILLOW
Coming Next Time... The Marine Issue
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