Nature News
March 31, 2025
Nurturing Nature
By: Carol Suits
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
Kid Stuff
The superheroes celebrated March Mammal Month by making behavioral enrichment rolls for
Liberty Wildlife’s coatimundi, Groot. Behavior enrichment activities can help animals practice hunting skills.
First, everyone got some paper rolls and coffee filters to decorate. These would be Groot’s BE rolls.
Next, Liberty Wildlife’s educator, Jen, talked about coatis and brought some food Groot would hunt for to eat. The food was placed in the decorated rolls and stuffed on each end with pretty coffee filters.
Then everyone walked to Groot’s enclosure! There were very important safety rules needing everyone’s attention.
The Superheroes found places to hide their BE rolls inside Groot’s cage. Jen released Groot into his enclosure and the fun began! Groot used his long nose to “hunt” for his food. He did a super job!
Puzzles!
Enjoy some puzzles to wind down for the day!
Keeping Urban Birds Safe
By: Claudia Kirscher
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
By definition, a scavenger is “an animal that feeds on dead and/or decaying organic matter.” They are an important part of the food web of ecosystems, keeping the ecosystem free of carrion. Scavengers are Nature’s recycling system. The list of scavengers in our world is extensive and includes mammals (e.g., bears, coyotes, raccoons, rodents), birds (e.g., vultures, bald eagles, golden eagles, great-horned owls, ravens), sea life (e.g., crab, fish), and insects (e.g., houseflies, ants).
To survive, they have become flexible about what they eat and can have an easier time finding food than creatures with more restricted diets, thus often better at adapting to new environments.
One of the most dangerous, less adaptable “new environments” is that of urban roadside litter. The negative impacts of littering are wide-ranging. It is expensive – taxpayers pay millions for roadside cleanup. It can kill or stunt plant growth. It kills or injures animals who may get stuck in bottles/jars and slowly starve to death; soda cans become razor-sharp traps severing limbs or toes; some litter can be deadly if eaten; broken glass can cut the feet of foraging animals leading to infection.
Roadside trash is also an indirect killer. Curious animals are drawn to the smell of “easy” food, putting them in the path of oncoming vehicles. This can start a fatal chain of events: A rodent is drawn to tossed food and killed by a car. A hunting raptor is drawn to that dead rodent (or a live one feeding alongside the road) and may be struck by an oncoming vehicle. Nighttime can double the chances of owls being hit by cars, a frequent injury seen at Liberty Wildlife. A golden eagle brought into Liberty was the victim of a vehicle strike while feeding on road kill.
What you can do:
- Do not toss food trash out your car window thinking that it is biodegradable and some animal “needs the meal.” That banana peel or apple can last 3-4 weeks, attracting animals during that time. A candy wrapper can last up to 3 months and smells tempting. The rest of that sandwich will be an irresistible lure. Use a car litterbag.
- Educate yourself, family and friends…and then educate again!
- Smokers, do not throw your cigarette butts out. Not only do you run the risk of starting a brush fire with them, they can stay intact up to 15 years. Curious animals or birds may ingest them.
- Get involved in a community cleanup or roadside trash pickup project.
- Carry gloves, trash bag, and small shovel in your vehicle and pick up trash you may find in a field or along a road, if it can be done safely.
- Remove road kill as far away from the road as you can, if you can safely do so, or call a local authority to have it removed.
- Call the Liberty Wildlife hotline for an injured animal at 480-998-5550.
Reprinted from Nature News March 2015
A Desert Dynamo
By: Gail Cochrane
Liberty Wildlife Volunteer
A thief has been at work in the chuparosa patch! The tiny verdin does not have a beak long enough to access the sweet nectar at the throat of the bloom, so makes a slit at the base of the flower and sips straight from the source. Feeding avidly at the chuparosa, the verdins do not contribute to pollination.
Nectar is surely a nutritious treat but busy verdins mostly rely on insects and spiders. Naturalist Pinau Merlin states they may eat as many as 400-500 insects every day! They also feast on seasonal fruits of desert plants, and seed pods of trees such as ironwood, paloverde and mesquite. All of this nutrition supports an active metabolism that is easily observed. Verdins flit about constantly, chittering as they glean insects often hanging upside down from plant stems to do so.
Verdins are also energetic nest builders. Recently I watched as a verdin brought a trailing strand of fluffy plant material to an existing nest. Verdins build different types of nests for different situations. In spring, the solitary birds pair up and the male builds the outer shell of a breeding nest for his female. She completes the interior and lays her eggs. The male also constructs smaller roosting nests for nighttime use. Some of these are for the fledglings once they leave their natal nest.
Verdin nests are easy to see when you walk in a desert wash, built as they are within the outer branches of the trees. These enclosed, ball shaped nests have an opening facing out and downward. Breeding nests include an interior lip to prevent eggs and nestlings from rolling out. Clever verdins build summertime nests with less insulation, and they position the opening facing towards prevailing breezes to provide cooling.
It is a perfect time of year to see verdins and their nests. Have a walk in the desert, and keep alert to the repetitive chitter and peep of these special birds.
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