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WindStar Wildlife Garden Weekly
Connecting People
To Nature Through
Education November 12,
2007
Official
Publication of WindStar Wildlife
Institute
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Frog Killer
'Breakthrough' 
NEW ZEALAND scientists have
found what appears to be a cure for the disease that is
responsible for wiping out many of the world's frog
populations. Chloramphenicol, currently used as an eye
ointment for humans, may be a lifesaver for the amphibians,
they say. The researchers found frogs bathed in the solution
became resistant to the killer disease, chytridiomycosis. The
fungal disease has been blamed for the extinction of one-third
of the 120 species lost since 1980. The researchers have been
hunting for a compound that would kill off the disease's
trigger, the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. I wonder
how they will apply the ointment to large populations of
frogs?
.
Tom
Patrick
Founder &
President
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Nuthatch Is Feathered
Fire
White-breasted Nuthatch by Bill
Horn
By Diane Cooledge
Porter
FEATHERED in
stone-cold black, grey, and white, the nuthatch is a
ball of metabolic fire.
Yenk-yenk-yenk-yenk. A
small nasal voice, like a bath toy rapidly squeezed,
comes from bare tree branches against a pale November
sky. A White-breasted Nuthatch flits to the leafless
elm's trunk and proceeds jerkily downward, head
first.
That's his trademark, hitching around
in any direction, as if gravity had no effect on him.
He pauses to chisel
loose a bit of bark, finds something interesting. His
throat bulges momentarily as he swallows. I can tell
this nuthatch is a male, because the top of his head is
shiny black.
A female's
crown would be... Read
On
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Nature
Quotes
"Nature is man's teacher. She unfolds
her treasures to his search, unseats his eye, illumes
his mind and purifies his heart; an influence breathes
from all the sights and sounds of her
existence."
--Alfred Billings
Street
White-lined Sphinx Moths are
sometimes mistaken for hummingbirds due to their large
size. Photo by Arlene Ripley.
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Kids Detach From Natural World--Explore Virtual
One
By Peter Fimrite
YOSEMITE may
be nice and all, but Tommy Nguyen of San Francisco would
much prefer spending his day in front of a new video
game or strolling around the mall with his
buddies.
What, after all, is a 15-year-old supposed to
do in what John Muir called "the grandest of all special
temples of nature" without cell phone
service?
"I'd rather be at the mall because you can enjoy
yourself walking around looking at stuff as opposed to
the woods," Nguyen said from the comfort of the
Westfield San Francisco Centre mall.
In Yosemite and other parks, he said, furrowing his
brow to emphasize the absurdly lopsided comparison, "the
only thing you look at is the trees, grass and sky."
The notion of going on a hike, camping,
fishing or backpacking is foreign to... Read
On
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Wildlife Photo
of the Week
Photographer Unknown
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Collisions
With Cars Is No. 1
Killer
 By Brian
Williams
MIDLAND,
TX--More wild animals die as roadkill than from
hunting or pollution.
(To reduce wildlife
fatalities, this overpass was built over Canadian
highway)
"People joke about "Roadkill cafés" where a
rural entrepreneur extends the meat budget. Armadillos
are famous for "jumping to their deaths" because when
scared they leap straight up--right into a speeding
vehicle.
Running into deer makes
roadkill of drivers, too. Certain stretches of Texas
roads are notorious for the numbers of roadkilled deer.
When Deborah and I were returning from San Antonio last
week we saw eight deer between Big Lake and Garden City.
In the last 20 minutes of evening twilight a driver
can not see deer grazing in the bar ditches until the
animal panics and bolts. We were lucky--the eight we saw
bolted in the direction of the fence, not us, but we
slowed way, way down, anyway. We have
witnessed... Read On |
Outdoor Cats Pose Risks
To Public
Health, Wildlife
 By William C.
Skaer
THE
ARTICLE about the trap, neuter and release of
stray and feral cats, though compelling, gave an
incomplete story.
Many people, including some of the
well-meaning supporters of such programs, are unaware
that there are some important implications to public
health and wildlife from releasing cats back into the
environment.Mike Dryden of the College
of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University is one
of the foremost veterinary specialists on parasitology,
the study of parasites. He is a cat lover who has had a
number of cats in his own home and runs a cat adoption
program. Dryden estimates that more than 50 percent of
all feral cats are infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a
protozoan parasite that infects many species of animals,
including humans. Dryden says between 25
and 40 percent of the human population in the United
States have positive... Read
On
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Have An EXCELLENT Day
in your WILDLIFE HABITAT!
Tom
Patrick
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10072 Vista
Ct.
Myersville, MD
21773
301-293-3351
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