They are often solitary, but will engage in playful behavior when with others, sliding down riverbanks on their bellies, and somersaulting through the water. Otters will create what are called "latrine" sites, scraping the ground clean, and building a mound near a prominent landscape feature, such as a large tree. Marking the mound with "spraint" (feces) and musk, otters will use this area for preening, playing, and scenting. These mounds in turn, help conservationists locate and survey otter populations in the state. Rhode Island does right by its otters - it is illegal to take or kill an otter. It is the only state in the Northeast that does not have a trapping season, which makes the chance of seeing one of these beauties all the more likely. And like me, I hope you will be otterly amazed.
Rhode Island has not disappointed in terms of nature sightings during my holiday visit. I've seen owls, mergansers, red-tail hawks, seals, great blue heron, and yes, even the elusive river otter, Lontra canadensis. I was fortunate enough to spot one many years back, crossing the road with four young, and even as I watched the mom and babies lope hurriedly to the other side, I knew how lucky I was to witness this rare event. While otters have always been present in Rhode Island, their numbers are up due to improvements in water quality as well as an increase in the beaver population, whose activities create more wetland habitats for the otters. This time, I scared one from its hunting spot next to a salt pond. As it scampered on the thin ice along the bank, I realized what a perfect otter habitat this place was, with lots of dense vegetation along the pond providing protection, plenty of food, including fish, mollusks, and crustaceans, and ample places for a burrow. Though they are called river otters, they haunt brackish and saltwater habitats as well as fresh. Members of the weasel family, Mustelidae, they are kin of mink and fishers, other furbearers found in Rhode Island. All possess anal musk glands and use them to communicate and mark territory. They are supremely adapted to the water, with webbed feet, a long streamlined body and tail, and whiskers, (called vibrissae) that help them locate prey underwater. A layer of fat just below the skin and dense fur keep them insulated through the winter - river otter do not hibernate.
They are often solitary, but will engage in playful behavior when with others, sliding down riverbanks on their bellies, and somersaulting through the water. Otters will create what are called "latrine" sites, scraping the ground clean, and building a mound near a prominent landscape feature, such as a large tree. Marking the mound with "spraint" (feces) and musk, otters will use this area for preening, playing, and scenting. These mounds in turn, help conservationists locate and survey otter populations in the state. Rhode Island does right by its otters - it is illegal to take or kill an otter. It is the only state in the Northeast that does not have a trapping season, which makes the chance of seeing one of these beauties all the more likely. And like me, I hope you will be otterly amazed.
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Permit me a bit of latitude for today's post. As I am on holiday visiting family in Rhode Island, I am getting reacquainted with the creatures of the Northeast woodlands, and of course, the Atlantic. And when I ran across this "living fossil" down at the beach the other day, I knew I had to write a post about the critter whose story is as old as the hills, yet plays a crucial, but under-appreciated role in modern medicine. This is Limulus polyphemus, the Atlantic horseshoe crab, with three related species residing in East and Southeast Asia. As with other Arthropods, it is characterized by jointed appendages, a segmented body and an exoskeleton. The three main classes of Arthropods are the Insects, Crustaceans, and Arachnids, but the horseshoe crab merits its own class, called Merostomata, a term which refers to the positioning of the mouth at the center of it's ten legs. They also have a long, whip-like tail which gives it a menacing appearance, but serves as a means of flipping the crab upright in the event it is overturned. Docile creatures, horseshoe crabs are primarily concerned with snuffling up worms and molluscs from the sandy or muddy ocean shallows. They are loaded with eyes - a pair of lateral eyes as well as five other eyes are located on the top of the shell, photoreceptors line the tail, and ventral eyes are found near the mouth. This gives them light and UV sensitivity, keeping them in rhythm with the cycles of the days and nights, helping them find a mate, and serving to orient them, which helps when they swim upside down, angled a bit from horizontal. Few people realize, though, that the horseshoe crab may have saved their life, or that of a loved one. And it's done in cold blood. That's right: it's the horseshoe crab blood that is so important. First, it's blue, due to the presence of hemocyanin, but that's not the special thing. You see, horseshoe crab blood has certain components that are bacterial killers: clotting when they come in contact with bacteria endotoxins, binding with, and then deactivating them. Meanwhile, in labs around the world, the manufacturers of intravenous drugs, vaccines, and any medical device that needs to be implanted need to be sure their products are free of endotoxins, so that we can receive treatment without fear of potentially fatal sepsis. And so, the two worlds meet: an extract made from the horseshoe crab's blood, called LAL, is used to ensure the sterility of their products. If, for example, a vaccine batch tested with LAL gets slurry and clotty, it's not sterile, and is therefore discarded. To obtain this life-saving extract, the crabs are collected, transported, and bled (about 1/3 of their blood is removed). Happily, they can be returned to the ocean, though a certain percentage do not survive the ordeal. The importance of this marine invertebrate to the medical field may mean that more research is done to better understand and protect their populations.
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