The Rhinelander Daily News - Online news and information for the Rhinelander, Wisconsin region

no healthful ease,

No comfortable feel in

any member -

No shade, no shine, no

butterflies, no bees

No fruits, no flowers

no leaves, no birds -

November!

– Thomas Hood (1799-1845)

Winged Paul Bunyans

We’ve had two winged Paul Bunyans at our suet blocks the past two weeks, much to our delight. The winged Paul Bunyans of the northcountry — pileated woodpeckers — are the largest known living woodpeckers in the world.

Boasting a bright red painted crest, the pileated is black. When flying, its 30-inch wing span displays patches of white. In addition to a red crest, the male has a red mustache. Only the rear half of the female’s crest is red.

Frequently called “log cocks,” the pileateds are master woodchoppers, chiseling out oval-shaped holes in both dead and live trees and leaving large chips and chunks of bark at the tree’s base.

To find its principal food, black carpenter ants, it makes excavations in live trees with rotten centers. The resident ants are taken from their living compartments by the woodpecker’s long and sticky tongue. Many times rotten snags are torn apart by the feathered woodchoppers to find the larvae of wood-boring beetles.

Thanksgiving notes

Some folks like turkey gizzards! Gizzards are power machines with grinding teeth and strong jaws. Mallards use their gizzards to grind down the acorns and hickory nuts that they eat. A wild turkey’s gizzard can pulverize a peanut in an hour, but it requires 30-32 hours to digest a hickory nut. To aid the work of a gizzard, birds need grit — course sand and pebbles. Birds can retain grit in the gizzards and withhold it from leaving the body with their food wastes.

Most of the turkeys that we eat are white-feathered ones. These domestic turkeys have been developed by turkey breeders to have such large breasts, in preference to thighs and legs, that the choice seems to most often be domestic over wild.

Early furbearers

Ever wonder what fur bearing animals were found here in the Northwoods before the white settlers arrived? An 1805 shipment of furs from a fur trader that lived in the Lac du Flambeau country provides a good answer: 60 large bear skins — 47 reindeer skins — 327 muskrat pelts — 68 beaver skins — 47 red deer skins — 3 lynx — 20 otter — 5 fisher — 100 pine marten — and a half moose skin.

After being extirpated from northern Wisconsin, many of the furbearers such as fishers, martens, timber wolves, moose and elk are making their appearance once again.

Strange but interesting

The elephant is the only mammal that can’t jump. A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue. Fingernails grow nearly four times faster than toenails! A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

Taming of the shrew

Tiny, short-tailed shrews live in the Northwoods. With one bite, a shrew can kill or stun an earthworm, snail, small beetle or even a mouse. That’s because these tiny underground hunters have a poisoned saliva that acts quickly on a prey’s nervous system. Some shrew species have enough venom to overcome 200 mice.

Bird notes

Which bird is the “top dog?” In North America, the top contenders are Mourning Dove (475 million), European Starling (200 million), Red-winged blackbird (190 million), and House Sparrow (150 million). The combined populations of these four species, amazingly, tally a mere quarter of the number of Passenger Pigeons believed to be found on this continent when European settlers arrived. At an estimated 3 to 4 billion birds, they were thought to make up 25 to 40 percent of the total number of birds in what is now the United States.

If we are being literal, however, chickens are “top dogs” of the population game, with well over 8 billion layers and broilers on large commercial farms in the United States alone.

It’s a bug’s life

Since 1973, 29 states have selected their official state insects. Fifteen have chosen the diligent honeybee. Seven have chosen a butterfly. New York, Delaware, Massachusetts and Tennessee have honored the ladybeetle as their official insect.

Which is what?

Antlers and horns may look alike, but they’re actually very different. Not even the same types of animals have them. Deer and their relatives, such as elk, moose, and caribou, have antlers; wild sheep, mountain goats, bison, and pronghorn antelope have horns.

Antlers have multiple points and are made of the world’s fastest growing bone. Some grow more than a centimeter a day. Usually only males have antlers and only for part of the year. After the rut, antlers are shed and a bigger set starts growing the next spring.

Horns, on the other hand, are permanent, staying with the animal throughout its life. They usually have only one point, are hollow (with a bony core), and are made from hair glued together by keratin (material similar to your fingernails). They may grow as little as a centimeter a year. Horns are found on females as well as males.

Antlers and horns also have different purposes. Antlers are mainly used by males to fight other males of their own species for the right to breed.

Horns are also useful for establishing dominance in a group, but their main purpose is defense.

There are several exceptions to these rules: Both female and male caribou have antlers. Pronghorn antelope horns have two points. Pronghorns shed their horn sheaths once a year.

By Terry R. Thomas

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