Blue Planet Journey

  The dioramas at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science focus on the taxidermy mounts and on the manufactured and painted habitats. But there is also behavior featured. Predation is an ecological process that results in a +/- situation. One individual gets a net benefit, and the other receives a net loss. Think of the situation in the photo above. The mountain lion and her cub are receiving a benefit from the deer. The deer, on the other hand, is experiencing a loss. Predation is not limited to encounters that result in nature "red in tooth and claw."  Herbivory and parasitism also result in a +/-. But herbivory and parasitism don't catch an audience's attention like classical predation. Predatory behavior captures the "oohs" and "aahs." Here's what you'll find in the dioramas on the second and third floors of the DMNS. Arctic fox beginning a pounce to catch a rodent under the snow. A golden eagle brings a cottontail to the nest. Bald eag...

In 2003, a jaguar was suspected of terrorizing residents of the Olinda area, Maui. Photo of a jaguar attacking a cayman in the Pantanal, Brazil, by Frank Schoen. Copyright: https://www.123rf.com/profile_djambi1969 . Used with permission.      In 2003, I was sitting in a Starbucks across from the Honolulu Zoo in Waikiki, reading the Honolulu Advertiser , when I came across an article about the sighting of a large, cat-like creature on Maui. I don't have that initial article, but I did find an archived copy of an article from Hawaii News Now on the topic: Wildlife officials are planning to intensify efforts today to capture a large catlike animal spotted in the lower Olinda area of Upcountry Maui. A search team sent out yesterday found evidence the animal does exist. They discovered tree trunks with deep scratch marks and a number of doves that appeared to be killed by a catlike paw. Wildlife experts plan to bait an existing trap today and add four more traps. Officials s...