Conservation Creation: Pollinator Parade

This month in Jeansboro Junction we are hosting a pollinator scavenger hunt! Join us at the GSC on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30, or click here to make this craft at home!

Butterflies and moths make up a large part of our local pollinators. North Carolina has 174 species of butterflies, and 2,000-2,500 moths! 

We are celebrating the reopening of our Cole Family Monarch Conservation Center and Butterfly House this May. Look closely on your visit and you may be able to find caterpillars munching on leaves as they prepare to metamorphosize into butterflies!

Caterpillars dine on leaves of specific host plants. For this reason, female adult butterflies will lay their eggs on the host plant. Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed leaves, which makes them poisonous to some predators. 

Many caterpillars look very different from other species and their adult forms. Their appearance can vary from smooth to spiky, they can be brightly colored or camouflaged. The Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar looks like a snake to scare predators, while the Giant Swallowtail resembles bird droppings to look unappealing. Monarch caterpillars are black with yellow and white stripes. 

And now for our DIY portion. This month we will be creating a caterpillar finger puppet!

You will need: Construction paper, markers, scissors 

Step 1: Draw your caterpillar shape. The shape you are creating is 4 connected circles that make up the head and body segments. Be sure to include antennae! 

Step 2: Use markers to decorate your caterpillar with any pattern you choose, then cut it out. Look at different species of butterfly larva for inspiration.

Step 3: Carefully cut a slot for your finger by making two parallel cuts on the back. Make sure you do not cut all the way through.

Step 3: Slide your finger into the slot and move your finger up and down to inch your way along like a real caterpillar!

Share photos of your creations with us by tagging us on social media!

Reference

https://dickinsoncountyconservationboard.com/2017/10/09/make-your-own-caterpillar-finger-puppet/

Did COVID-19 Change Bat Activity? Share Your Vote!

There are billions of people on Earth – and more than half of them live in urban spaces. 

Our movements, behaviors, and activities impact our environment and the other species that share that environment. Some species have adapted to live alongside of us while others have adapted ways to avoid us. 

A group of animals we often see in urban spaces are bats, but we don’t think of them as often since our encounters are usually limited to watching them erratically fly in the night sky. The bats in our area are insectivores, consuming thousands of insects as they fly around. 

Some bat species have adapted to live in urban spaces, roosting in buildings or under bridges. Last year, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) and the Greensboro Science Center (GSC) took a deeper look into the bat-human interaction by asking whether we could detect a change in bat activity in response to human activity. 

UNCG is just blocks away from downtown Greensboro where human activity tends to increase on weekends due to social activities including attending sporting events, visiting bars and restaurants, and shopping.

The GSC is located among parks and rural neighborhoods where the weekends are a bit quieter. 

Humans are noisy, messy, and more prominent downtown on the weekends, but does bat activity respond to that?

UNCG and the GSC host continuously-recording bat detectors on their respective campuses. Detectors record the ultrasonic sounds bats produce when they are navigating the night sky and foraging for prey. Each bat species produces calls that are slightly different. While we can’t actually hear bats because their calls are well above the auditory range, we can record these really high frequency sounds. 

Using software, we can then view the sounds as a wave file and listen to the sounds at a lower frequency and slowed down. Since each species is a little different, we can also determine what species of bats are in our skies. 

After looking through around 180,000 calls, we did see a pattern of activity that showed bats were more active at UNCG on weekdays than weekends. And the opposite was true at the GSC, where bats were more active on the weekends than weekdays. 

Then 2020 came along and the world was introduced to the SARS virus COVID-19. 

A great many terrible outcomes have surfaced as the virus made its way around the globe. Humans all over the earth were suddenly facing an invisible, deadly, and prolific enemy. COVID-19 impacted our world, our economy, our culture, and us as individuals. 

While we are living through the daily challenges of COVID-19, it can be hard to step back and look at the virus’s impact on the ecosystem, but that is exactly what researchers are doing. 

As the virus infiltrated the USA, North Carolina entered into a stay-at-home order from March 30 – April 29, 2020. Very suddenly and dramatically, human social activities stopped and we were no longer socializing, going to dinner, watching a ballgame, etc. Many of the human behaviors and activities that impact our environment came to screeching halt. 

One thing that didn’t stop were our bat detectors. They continued to record bat activity night after night. 

The UNCG and GSC researchers met (on Zoom of course) and asked, do you think bat activity changed in response to the reduction in human activity since it was so sudden? 

We want to know if the results we found studying bat activity is something they learned over time or if bats respond to human activity on a whim. Researchers are reviewing bat data from spring 2018, 2019, and 2020 to look for a change in bat behavior weekend to weekday. If bat activity responds to human activity on a fine scale, we should see a change in activity in 2020 in response to the stay-at-home order. 

At this time, we are analyzing data, but we want to know what you think we will find. 

Hypothesis:

If bat activity patterns are a fine scale response to human activity patterns, then we will see a change in bat activity in 2020 resulting from the COVID-19 induced stay-at-home order. 

What do you think we will see? Vote below:

Preparing for Winter: Reptiles & Amphibians

The Greensboro Science Center is home to a number of reptiles and amphibians, including four awesome Aldabra tortoises! Although they live at the GSC all year long, during your winter visit, you won’t see these guys out and about in our zoo.

As cold-blooded animals, Aldabra tortoises need warm weather to stay healthy. When temperatures dip below about 60 degrees, they remain inside their blockhouses where the temperature is maintained at a toasty 80 degrees and where they have access to heat lamps and UV lamps.

You probably notice in your very own backyard that you don’t see turtles, snakes, frogs, and the like during winter. Many of these animals hibernate during the colder months. If you see one around as the temperatures begin to cool, the best thing to do is to leave it alone. If the animal is in an unsafe location, you can move it to a brushy area where it can burrow and hide. To help local reptiles and amphibians, you can create brush piles in your yard where they can stay warm and safe through winter!