The bugs who came in from the cold & other animals

It started with a very visible spotted red ladybug, who somehow found her way into my bathroom and hid whenever I tried to catch her and take her back outside.  This went on for a few days till I could gently capture her and place her on a nice bush in front.

She and her kin – some 5,000 “lady beetle” or “ladybird” species in the world -- eat aphids and other plant-eating pests during their lifespan of 2-3 years in the wild.  (I hope she’s hard at work right now!)

Then, 3 identical unidentifiable beetles hung out between screen and window till we could reach and carry them outside.  And finally, various spiders who seem never to tire of visiting.

Take a dog home!

Buster

It’s still Adopt a Shelter Dog (ASDM) month – so please do!  Help the shelter of your choice free up more space by freeing a dog now waiting there for you.  S/he will love you for that, and in doing a merciful thing, you’ll make a friend for life.  You can’t have too many of them.

‘Bleat’ time 

The October issue of ‘Bleat,’ the newsletter all about deer, is out, so you can once again learn more about one of this state’s most threatened animals: our white-tailed deer.

If you don’t know why acorns are the food of choice for deer and other animals; or how to save wildlife from being trapped by soccer nets; or why you should “leave  the leaf litter” when you clean up your garden; or how to decorate pumpkins a la deer . . . and much more, use this link to reach “Bleat," and then, if necessary, scroll for this month's

issue.  (Btw, “bleat” is the sound a baby deer makes to call mom.)  https://conta.cc/3zN8Abg. 

Animal departures

Two sad deaths – one, the last of a species -- were reported in recent news.

·       Ndakasi, a beloved mountain gorilla orphaned at 2 months of age, died at 14 last month in the Democratic republic of Congo.  She was rescued after massacres of gorilla families that killed her mother, and she grew up with Andre Bauma as her caretaker and keeper.  “We shared the same bed, I played with her, I fed her,” he said.  “I can say I am her mother.”  Ndakasi died in his arms.     https://tinyurl.com/rcbame6b

The ivory-billed woodpecker, last seen in 1944, has been officially declared extinct.  It happened after a flurry of worldwide excitement over a 2005 report of a sighting that ultimately proved to be a false alarm. 

This was an example of “existence value,” an “economic term for the satisfaction that people feel from knowing that something important to them continues to exist.”

Ivory-billed woodpecker

But that’s not all: numerous other species have also already been lost in this Anthropocene era, considered to be the Earth’s sixth major extinction. “According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, we are losing plants, birds, fish, crustaceans, mollusks and mammals.”

The question is whether humans will resolve to save disappearing species through much more concerted action than has occurred till now. https://tinyurl.com/z3tb3z8x

Friend past the end

There’s one more story to tell about Maggie, the African elephant who died last August at 41.  Yes, she died peacefully “underneath her favorite shady oak tree and near her best loved mudholes” at PAWS, the California sanctuary.

But the most touching part of Maggie’s story is about her closest elephant friend, Lulu.  The 2 refused to be apart; everywhere one went, the other did too.  “In fact,” PAWS reported, “Lulu stayed at Maggie’s side long after she had passed, unwilling to leave her friend until she was ready.”

Lulu & Maggie

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