zoologyrocks-blog

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Aye Ayes

Aye Ayes, Daubentonia madagascariensis, can only be found on Madagascar and are very endangered.  To the natives, they are considered an omen of bad luck so many times they are killed on site.  They are related to chimpanzees, apes, and humans, the primate family. They are brown or black and have a bushy tail larger than their own body.  They have big eyes, thing fingers, sensitive ears, and are nocturnal.  They use their long, thin fingers to pull larvae out of holes in bark and scoop out fruit to eat. Measuring their head and body, they are 14 to 17 in long and only weigh about 4 lbs.  they live about 20 years naturally.

Classification

K: Animalia P: Chordata C: Mammalia O: Primates F: Daubentoniidae G: Daubentonia S: Daubentonia madagascariensis

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Urbana Veterinary Clinic Visit

On 23 January, our Zoology class left the classroom once more to go on an adventure.  We visited the Urbana Veterinary Clinic.  I am very familiar with this clinic since this is where we took our family cat for many years until she died, and even then they helped her move on to a better place.  I never realized how big the clinic was, the clinic has a small stable in the back to care for large animals, but also small warm areas to care for your stereotypical cat, dog, mouse, gerbil, etc.  I also did not know that this clinic cares for what they call “exotic” animals, which are anything but your typical house pet as mentioned previously.  The doctor who gave us our tour, I do not remember her name, also treats animals at a zoo in Kentucky which is pretty awesome.  She has even performed acupuncture on an elephant.  They do all of the testing that they can in-house, which means that they do not send it away to be done, in order to save patients’ money. I learned that if you take your animal to a vet for dental work and you find out that they do not have a dental x-ray machine, you should not take your animal there because serious damage could be done to the animal.  She showed us some examples of parasites that had been removed from some dogs and reminded us of the importance of getting your dogs vaccinated and treated for things like heart worms.  To be completely honest, the best part was then end when we got to pet the cat that lives in the clinic.  

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On 19 January our Zoology class was visited by Jim Lemon, a local bug expert, and we went on a guided nature walk with him to try to find invertebrates in this cold, Ohio winter. Before we braved the chilly winds, he gave us some basic background information.  Ohio is located in the East Deciduous zone and we live in a sub-freezing climate.  Invertebrates do one of four things in the winter to survive: They increase their metabolism, migrate, become inactive, or hibernate.  When invertebrates hibernate, they stay in one form during that period of time such as an egg, larvae, pupae, or adult.  The invertebrates that remain inactive during the cold months have to keep from freezing, so they do one of two things; they either implement freeze avoidance or freeze tolerance.  Freeze avoidance is otherwise known as super-cooling, their bodies so something that keeps the freezing temperatures of their body as such a low level that they cannot freeze. Freeze tolerance is when they control the freezing and basically let their whole bodies freeze and then they just thaw out in the spring time or when the weather gets warm.  Some extremely small invertebrates remain active in the winter such as potato bugs, spiders, sprigtails, beetle larvae, midges, stone flies, and many others.  To find any of these small invertebrates, you have to look under things such as leaf litter, soil, and bark.  

When we finally ventured to the outdoors, nature was teeming with small invertebrates.  We found only a small percentage of what was actually out there, but it was spectacular.  We found a variety of bugs such as a few spiders under some tree bark, leaf hoppers jumping from stump to stump, some spinach flea beetles under some leaves, and plenty of beetle larvae and snail or slug eggs everywhere.  I never realized how much life surrounds our campus when it comes to invertebrates, and I will definitely go bug hunting again the next time I go on a hike or even just a walk around the block.