The Natural History Survey is a member-supported non-profit founded in 1994 to connect those knowledgeable about Rhode Island's animals, plants, and natural systems with each other and with those who can use that knowledge for research, education, and conservation.
The Natural History Survey provides scientific information and technical assistance to agency managers, conservation land owners, researchers, and environmental educators. We engage people of many backgrounds and interests who want to learn and share their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the natural world. So subscribe or leave a like, or follow us on Facebook, and we'll see you out there!
Unless otherwise stated, videos here are shot, narrated, and edited by executive director David Gregg. For more information about any video or the Natural History Survey and its programs, contact David Gregg or Kira Stillwell.
1:50 I had seen these all the time where I’m from in NC. One even chased me at 3am once when I was otw back inside the house. I wanted to hurry up and get in since it was late and started to pick up my pace to a light jog and as soon as I did I heard a bunch of leaves ruffling and the I saw these huge glowing eyes 😆 luckily it was on the other side of the fence of our neighbors property so I was good but damn my if my heart didn’t start racing! 😅
Sawfly larvae actually. I learned through some research that they emerge at about 150° growing degree days and you can predict when they come out so you don’t have to just wait for the damage.
Every year the quality gets better and better. This year is really exceptional! I left RI in 2017 and watching these shorts every year makes me nostalgic.
You might be the right person to ask about, I make Quohog Jewelry and often buy shell pieces and whole shells on ETSYS, always looking for the ones with lot of purple and on the thicker side.Almost impossible to find these days, unless you have the right connections or u live there or know the right fishermen. These days i hear the chinese are buying up all the shells these days,and making Cabishons to sell themselves,they doing a good job also. It seems like they getting the cream of the crop of thicker shells!
I think the ones you're looking for are the inshore quahog, Mercenaria mercenaria. What I learned in this video is that that kind is not commercially competitive with farmed pacific clams or deep water species at least not for mass market chowder and stuffies. M. mercenaria is the kind you get if you order at a raw bar, but those are very small shells. So you need to find New Englanders who are making chowder or stuffies, recipies that use the largest clams, at home with clams they caught themselves. It also seems that clams from some clam beds have more purple but I'm not sure what the factors are.
Very informative. Thanks. I want to convert this diversion ditch into pools and connect then via a ditch ladder simulating what I find in the wild to create a refuge for the native wild brook trout above the agricultural runoff……. I was shocked to become aware…. Can someone please tell me the maximum height a brookie can jump between pools? I can over summer them through drought with deep trench swales from hillside springs in the fields
I found a paper online that experimented with this. According to them, wild brookies cannot jump very far, well under a foot. There's a sweet spot for fish size, too, with larger ones that could theoretically jump higher being less likely to colonize new habitat and smaller ones that like to push up into newly opened reaches being less good at jumping. I wouldn't count on brook trout getting past a hop of more than 3" to 6".
Thanks for your suggestion for improving the video. Views of the fish ladder as a whole appear at the 51 second mark. The idea there was to show the whole thing and convey that it's a pretty big, elaborate structure. Various views of the fish ladder and its components feature between the 4 minute and 14 minute marks while Jim explains. One goal of these videos is to give a glimpse into the science behind things we see every day, like fish ladders. If you're interested in more views of fish ladders, do an image search and let the audio from our video play in the background while you browse the numerous fish ladder pictures available there. You might also be interested in a video we did at the herring run at the Gilbert Stuart Birthplace ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OwcjBBlln9M.html
That's a pretty small bobcat, maybe a juvenile. I live in SoCal in the hills and had one jump a 5 foot fence and grab a chicken on two separate occasions. The second time I went outside and saw him attacking the chicken and scared him off. The bird was mortally wounded and the bobcat came back later and hauled the carcass away. I was able to see the size, the size of its fangs (like a leopard's) and noticed its tail was longer than in the pictures I'd seen. My impression was it probably weighed 60-70 lbs comparing it to my old Husky. I would not want to mess with that cat, I might win in a fight but I'd have plenty of scars to prove it.
Could you be more specific? Seriously, what presentation, discussion, or issue in the RIWP are you seeing as helping the forest industry in a way that isn't balanced by other presentations, discussions, or issues related to forest conservation? The RIWP has representatives from across the spectrum and I think there's a balance of presentations on issues, all of which are focused on preserving forests, from straight up conservation to ecologically sensitive harvesting. When you say "the forest industry" do you really mean "industry" or are you using that phrase because it sounds dramatic? Because the "forest industry" in Rhode Island is basically a couple dozen old guys in broken down trucks trying to make a living. There's Thompson's, out in Hopkinton, which is run out of a family house, and a handful of timber cutters. If you're thinking Weyerhaeuser or clearcutting redwood forests, that's not a Rhode Island issue. You might be thinking about developers, who cut down a lot of forests, but that's not forestry. I don't think timber cutting is not an unreasonable forest activity if done selectively or with certain ecological goals, and assuming there are also some forests that aren't being harvested at all. Local lumber has a lower carbon foot print than bringing in everything from thousands of miles away and it supports things of deep historical and cultural importance for RI like wooden boat building and construction of post and beam buildings. Also, most forest land in RI is privately owned, and with house lots worth six figures, you have to have give private landowners some economic incentive to keep their land in forest. But if you're seeing something I'm not, please be specific.
To me the Organic or Regenative Farming video should Not been allowed regardless of it being organic farming ..Farming has Nothing to do with Nature Aminal or Plant Wild LIFE... All Types of Farming does is Destroy the Habitat for Native Wild Life both Wild Plants and Animals..... It is beyond me why Organizers allowed this to be entered...!!!!!!!!!!! Especially when the title of the fesival IS Rhode Island NATURE Video Festival... There is nothing Nature about Farming., especially when farming destroys natural Nature Habitats...!!!
Interesting,i make some quahog jewelery and many years ago my sister in law saved me some shell from some 'Stuffies" when i seen them i thought i struck gold,all purple colored it was amazing,but they were very thin and unsuitable for jewelery making,i did manage to make a few pair of large earrings. Did some searching and found some in the North west coast but not a lot of info.
Good questions. The collar has three release mechanisms: 1) it releases after a year no matter what; 2) it can be commanded to release at any time; 3) it has links that will disintegrate naturally after a while and drop off even if the powered releases don't work. When the collar drops off, it transmits its location and someone from our project goes out and picks it up. From what we know based on tracking versus visual and camera monitoring, collared coyotes return to their normal routines within a day or two. Remote video footage shows collared coyotes interacting with their pack mates and it doesn't look like they're treated any different.
I made something similar to this on my own property but instead of spadefoots I did it for the eastern tiger salamanders here in Maryland. Right on the edge of a large field and a thick ephemeral forest in what used to be cattle farmland.
Aquidneck Island, because it is a closed ecosystem the best solution would be to open public hunting land to mitigate the overpopulation of coyotes, they've been eating pets, roaming the roads and pestering our farmers, who are unfortunately too liberal to allow private land hunts. They only care after their precious pets have been attacked. The fact that there are hundreds of coyotes on the island in 10 packs is an issue. Because its an island, the idea that they will have larger litters with other packs is unlikely considering the terrain limitation.Ultimately the community s suffering because it has too many "bleeding hearts" for these coyotes.
There are a few things wrong with what you're saying. First, Aquidneck isn't a closed ecosystem, the study has tracking evidence of coyotes crossing the Sakonnet River Bridge. Second, the NBCS isn't "anti-hunting" or "anti-lethal control," the management plan has lethal control in it; but the project is against futile, dangerous, or counter-productive hunting. The study has examples of hunters who shoot the alpha pair in a territory (because they're the most visible, they're usually the first ones shot), only to find tons of transient coyotes suddenly roaming the area. Shooting coyotes without knowing what you're doing actually INCREASES the number of coyotes. Third, we know from evidence that you have to do a LOT of shooting to achieve a meaningful reduction of coyote numbers. Shooting the odd varmint or shooting in a narrow, controlled lane with a good backstop is as safe as anything, but shooting scores of coyotes in all weather and light conditions in the spaces between neighborhoods will eventually result in a tragedy. If the prospects of success were better, maybe the community would make the decision that the risk was worth it, but shooting is almost guaranteed to be ineffective so what is the risk worth? Finally, in the study, it has been found that when coyotes approach people or take dogs from right next to houses, 100% of the time someone in the area is feeding them. And to another of your points, when people feed coyotes, they artificially increase the carrying capacity of AI over what it would be naturally so there isn't really a "natural" limit to their population. If you want to help solve the coyote problem, the most effective way to do it is to talk to your neighbors about not feeding coyotes, not leaving pet food outside, and covering trash cans and dumpsters. People would be shocked by how many feeders (accidental AND deliberate) the study has found over the years, right in the middle of neighborhoods with kids and pets. To paraphrase a slogan, coyotes aren't unsafe, feeding coyotes is unsafe.
Thank you for putting this together and sharing it. I learned some things I didn't know about Joyce even though I've known her since we were at the UM together.
Browsing vernal pools and viewed this "terrific presentation"!!! Amphibian activist here, with a (self built) nature preserve that is right in my backyard!! First things first!! Tons of applause for your efforts in preserving the Eastern Spadefoot!! An amphibian encountering an enormous amount of stress to their environment! Truly inspirational to view the efforts of wildlife professionals in pursuit of "nature conservation". I have a goldfish pond and a frog pond (built in shallow woods) on the property. Both attract an abundance of activity including the magical fairy shrimp. The frog pond however, is an annual haven for the rearing of the wood frog and spotted salamander! Rapid development and even climate change have been impinging on the domains of so many of these "stars of nature". I too, am proud to be working to help preserve their environment!!! Once again to You, a very Fun watch, and great display of support for our amphibian friends!!
The fluke flapping behavior is pretty well documented going back to a time before drones so probably not related, but it's an interesting question how much whales can detect about the world above the water's surface. I'd imagine they can hear something like a helicopter, that emits low frequency vibrations, but consumer level drones are small enough that they don't produce the kind of energy it would take to be loud in the low frequencies. I'm sure someone knows, maybe investigate it yourself and let us know! Thanks for watching the festival.
