Happy #WildlifeWednesday from the star-nosed mole! This bizarre hamster-sized mole with a striking snout is semi-aquatic and lives in wet lowland areas throughout Ohio. Using its large front paws and thick claws, the star-nosed mole excavates extensive underground burrows and tunnels. They also use these paws to swim, turning the palms outwards and moving their appendages in a maneuver resembling the breaststroke. The mole hunts both day and night, consuming earthworms, terrestrial and aquatic insects, mollusks, crustaceans, amphibians, and small fish. Essentially blind due to its tiny eyes and subterranean lifestyle, it uses the remarkable snout for which it is named to process sensory information while hunting. Let’s talk about that nose! The “star” is formed by 22 finger-like tentacles called rays. With tens of thousands of nerve endings and sensory receptors called Eimer’s organs, the snout of the star-nosed mole is the most sensitive touch organ known in the animal kingdom. The rays are constantly in motion and can touch multiple objects in under one second as it searches for food in its dark tunnels. The nose can determine in under 8 milliseconds whether something is edible, the fastest response to a stimulus known in animals, and the star-nosed mole is recognized in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the fastest forager on the planet. That’s not all! The amazing proboscis of the star-nosed mole allows it to smell underwater, which was previously thought to be impossible for mammals. Using the star-like structure of its nose, the mole blows 8-12 small air bubbles per second over objects in the water. The bubbles are quickly drawn back into the nostrils and sniffed to determine if the items are food. The stupendous star-nosed mole will be one of the characters at our upcoming Enchanted Forest event. Come learn even more about this unusual creature and its incredible nose. Smell you later!
Happy #WildlifeWednesday! Monarch migration is underway! Eastern monarch butterflies are currently flying through Ohio on their way from their summer breeding grounds in Canada to their overwintering areas in Mexico. The monarchs will migrate thousands of miles, traveling up to 100 miles each day from late August through October, reaching their roosting sites in November. The best time for viewing the largest numbers of butterflies during migration in Ohio is the first 3 weeks of September. The migrating butterflies rely on steady food sources along their journey, including native milkweed and flowers. Loss of grassland and prairie habitats have contributed to the decline of these charismatic butterflies as well as other pollinating insects such as bees, wasps, and moths. Late summer and early fall (right now!) is the perfect time to gather seeds from milkweed pods for planting. Providing more habitat and monarch “waystations” along their flyways contributes to their conservation. Native milkweed species to plant in Ohio include common, swamp, butterfly, and poke milkweed. Milkweed is the sole host plant to the iconic monarch caterpillar, which feeds exclusively on the leaves. Monarchs migrate both individually and in groups, sometimes congregating together in spectacularly enormous numbers to rest and re-fuel, a dazzling sight to nature lovers and photographers. Monarchs can be seen any time of day, though morning is better viewing, before the afternoon temperatures get too hot. They bright orange beauties can be admired flying in the air overhead, as well as be spotted in trees, bushes, grasses, and gardens. The Wilderness Center is a great place to look for monarchs! Come visit our prairie overlooking Wilderness Lake and hike the Prairie Loop trail soon for excellent opportunities to see monarchs up-close and on the wing.
