Castelluccio di Norcia is a beautiful little town, well known for its lentil’s and situated in the Mount Sibillini National Park. Between late May and early July (depending on weather), you will find the plateau near Mount Vettore transform into a rainbow bursting with colours.
Username: KisuKotha Published on 2024-11-25 05:30:35 ID NUMBER: 125687
As omnivores, foxes in the Artic eat voles, mice, lemmings, rabbits and other small animals throughout the fall and winter. In the spring, they supplement their diet with nesting birds, and are often seen sneaking around the tundra attempting to steal Canada goose eggs. In summer, they add in insects and berries to their menu. They’ve also been known to catch young lake trout by jumping from the bank into a school of fish in shallow water. In short, they’re opportunists.
Foxes will also eat seal pups, beaver, reptiles, fruits and even garbage. (Hinterland Who’s Who, n.d.). Red foxes stock up, hiding their food in the dirt or snow and marking it with urine. I, for one, am glad we have a freezer and pantry instead.
Did you know that Arctic foxes are ecosystem engineers? A fascinating research project was published in 2016 demonstrating how effective they are at growing gardens around their dens. They may not set out with the intention of having wildflowers and vegetation marking the spot of their homes, but it’s a beautiful development of Nature’s cycle. The tundra maintains minimal and very low-lying vegetation, so you can visibly spot Arctic fox dens by the lushness of the vegetation surrounding them.
The researchers tested the soil throughout the seasons and found that the effects of a fox den increased the nutrients in the soil drastically. In June, extractable phosphorus – a major plant nutrient – was found to be nearly 1200% greater around dens. The natural garden growing is due to the defecation, the remains of foxes’ meals, and urination around the den (Gharajehdaghipour, 2016). The extra fauna helps attract herbivores, like the foxes’ main food source, the lemming.
Cute and frisky, Arctic foxes are nomadic animals that follow polar bears onto the ice in search of food throughout the winter. During the summer they form family groups. The mother and father both care for the young and sometimes a female kit from a previous litter joins in to help care for the new pups. In the wild, Arctic foxes only live for 3-4 years, as there are many predators to evade, including eagles, polar bears, wolverines, red foxes and wolves.
If you’ve seen the classic photo of an Arctic fox nosediving into the snow, they aren’t playing, they’re hunting. Their hearing is so good they can hear lemmings moving underneath the snow. They pounce when they get close.
More elusive in the summer, Arctic foxes come out in their full marshmallow-y glory in the fall. Their grey-brown coats turn a pristine white and they fluff up to the size of a large housecat, with their tail making up one third of their length. Changing colours throughout the year allows them to camouflage themselves, whether predator or prey.
People often wonder how something so small survives the sub-zero temperatures, but Arctic foxes have adapted to their environment surprisingly well. Their small ears, muzzle, and short legs reduce the surface area exposed to the cold. Research has shown it takes temperatures of -70°C or -94°F to even get Arctic foxes to shiver. Now that’s cold! And just in case you’re wondering, polar bears don’t shiver easily either. They normally have a harder time not overheating, thanks to two coats of fur and a thick layer of insulating fat.
The wunderpus octopus got its name just for being cute. Wunderpus is a mix of the German word “Wunder,” which means marvel or wonder, and the English word "octopus.” The "Photogenicus” in its scientific name likely refers to its photogenic nature.
This type of octopus has rusty brown skin with white blotches and stripes, which form beautiful patterns. It can impressively modulate its shape and color to mimic a lethal lionfish or sea snake to deter a predator. Wunderpuses live in the shallow waters of the Indo-Malayan Archipelago.
Wetlands are areas that are totally or partially covered with water. They are transitional between permanently flooded deep water areas and areas with their water tables near the surface. Sometimes, shallow water covers the surface of the land. Examples of wetlands are:
brackish marsh,
fresh marshes,
salt marshes,
swamps,
wet prairies,
bogs,
forested wetlands,
and vernal pools.
You can also refer to wetlands as areas with dominant natural water saturation levels, determining the soil development processes and the plants and animals inhabiting them. The covering of water in some wetlands could be permanent or seasonal.
-urlfoto:)
