“The data revealed that the Aleut fed on around 25 percent of the species they had access to – a figure that dwarfed the other predators nearby. Such a varied diet put the Aleut in a category of super-generalist predator; like other species with the classification, the local community would routinely switch their favored prey whenever its population decreased or if the environmental conditions blocked access. Food webs with prey-switching predators rarely experience extinctions, thanks to the stabilizing nature of a predator backing off of a dwindling prey population, according to Dunne.”
Bees, butterflies, and other pollinators need access to abundant nectar and pollen resources throughout the growing season. At minimum, strive for three species to be blooming at any one time; the greater the diversity, the better. The links below will help you find the best plants for your garden. It is important to include flowers that bloom early in the spring to provide food for newly emerging bumble bee queens. Similarly, it is important to provide flowers that bloom in the late summer and fall to support new bumble bee queens for overwintering.
If you are adding plants to your garden, plant flowers in clumps at least three-feet-wide to help them be more attractive to passing pollinators. Choose native plants wherever possible, as they have evolved with native pollinators and the local environment. To attract butterflies, include their host plant in your pollinator garden…
(CLICK ABOVE TO GET REGIONAL GUIDES TO POLLINATOR GUIDES)
The really strange thing about this movie is that despite its strongly overt themes of anti-captivity, it triggered a huge boom in sales of clownfish. A vast number of people seriously watched this movie and decided that they would go out and buy tropical fish.
About half of the tropical fish in pet stores are wild-caught. In the five years following the movie’s release, the clownfish population on some reefs fell by 75%. The increased level of sedatives used to knock out wild fish caused lasting damage to tropical ecosystems.
Because many people did no research on how to care for tropical fish, many clownfish died as a result of inadequate living conditions.
When people got bored of caring for their fish, many of them were released into oceans where they were not native. Feral clownfish (among other popular aquarium fish) are even now harming the ecology in American oceans. (link)
So many people’s reaction to seeing a cute animal is “I want one!” This stems from the belief that animals are objects to be owned, not complex individuals with desires, needs, and lives of their own. “I want one!” demonstrates a complete disregard of animal’s rights to live autonomously, and places the focus squarely on human desires.
Animal lives have higher standing than human whims. Animals do not belong to us. Fish aren’t meant to be in a box.
PiraticOctopus 