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...

This cougar was killed after  attacking two mountain bikers in Washington, killing one.   On May 19, two mountain bikers were riding near North Bend, Washington, when they noticed a mountain lion (also called a cougar or puma) was following them.  I don't have the full details, but I've read that they stopped, yelled, put their bikes between them and the lion... things that almost all lion experts recommend to discourage an attack.  The lion persisted, however, grabbing one cyclist by the head, then chasing the other cyclist as that cyclist ran away.   T he first cyclist attacked got back on his bike, escaped, and called for help.  The second cyclist, Sonja J. Brooks, tragically, was found dead. “They stopped to confront the cougar, they did everything right, everything that we counsel people to do,” WDFW Captain Alan Myers said . “Do not play dead — fight back. Fight back with everything you’ve got,” he said. “In...