VIDEO: Fox with Hair Loss: Fox on the prowl near Stratford Road and Rand Road in Arlington Heights.

A fox with mange walked right down the middle of Stratford Road in Arlington Heights from Oakton Street to Rand Road Tuesday. Searching for water and food, the fox was oblivious to people and was seen by several neighbors in the area.

Mange is a class of persistent contagious skin diseases caused by parasitic mites. The mites embed themselves either in hair follicles or skin, depending upon their type. They generally infest domestic animals, including dogs and other canines, livestock (such as sheep scab), wild animals and even humans (such as scabies). The infection causes hair loss and severe itching of the affected animal. In people the infection is called scabies

The mites often proliferate near the ears. The fox frequently shook his body and flicked his ears. Most of the hair loss was near the face and ears. Part of the tail and upper legs also seemed affected.

Arlington Heights police received a report about 11:30 a.m. of a bat in an apartment in the 2800 block of East Bel Aire Drive.

The past two nights reports of burglars on the roof or the side of houses have turned out to be racoons on Donald Avenue and on Fernandez Avenue. The racoon on the roof broke a window.

A three-to-five-foot alligator was sighted about 5:30 p.m. Sunday on the bank of the Chicago River North Branch just north of Belmont Avenue. The location is very close to the location of another sighting of an alligator earlier this August.

Chicago police and animal control officers responded to search for an alligator Thursday, August 5, 2010 in the North Branch of the Chicago River in West Lakeview, but suspended the search until after 10 p.m., when the young animal would be easier to find.

A person claimed to have seen an alligator about 11:30 a.m. near the 3400 block of North Rockwell Avenue.
The alligator sighting location was near Clark Park on the east bank of the Chicago River and near Lane Tech High School and DeVry University.

Police Marine Unit officers in boats and a kayak, and officers on land searched the area until just after 4 p.m. A 2½-foot alligator captured on August 6, 2010.

View Strange World in a larger map

Update: 2½-foot alligator captured on August 6, 2010.

Chicago police and animal control officers responded to search for an alligator this afternoon in the North Branch of the Chicago River in West Lakeview, but have suspended the search until after 10 p.m., when the young animal may be easier to find.

A person claimed to have seen an alligator about 11:30 a.m. near the 3400 block of North Rockwell Avenue.
The alligator sighting location was near Clark Park on the east bank of the Chicago River and near Lane Tech High School and DeVry University.

Police Marine Unit officers in boats and a kayak, and officers on land searched the area until just after 4 p.m.

View Strange World in a larger map

After losing his two rear paws in a nasty encounter with a combine harvester, Oscar the cat is back on his feet after being outfitted with two metallic pegs that link the ankle to the foot.

Professor Gordon Blunn and his team at University College London developed the Intraosteous Transcutaneous Amputation Prosthesis (ITAP) in 2006. A miniaturized version was made for the smaller bone structures of the cat’s skeletal system.

A honeycomb design was developed that mimics the way deer’s skin and fur blends around its antlers. The titanium metal implant attaches to the bone at the point of amputation so that it sticks out through the skin.

The new method enables skin and soft tissue to mesh and grow around the metal rod acting as a protective seal to prevent infection.

The implant is more flexible because it becomes an extension of the bone rather than an attachment.

Prosthetic limbs are screwed to the external bit of the ITAP after the prosthetic heals and meshes with bone and flesh.

Noel Fitzpatrick used two ITAPs on the animal drilling into the ankle bone on both back paws before sliding in two metal rods.

The three-hour surgical procedure was risky because the small ankle bones could be fractured by the drill that was needed to clear a way for the attachment of the ITAP.

Oscar wore through his first prosthetic paws in weeks, so a more enduring material was made for his next set of artificial bionic paws.

From Pubmed.gov …
See research related to Gordon Blun …

Summertime means being outside, and being outside means watching out for ticks. The bloodsucking parasites transmit illnesses like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Jorge Ribas gets tips on how to avoid them.

Department of Entomology, University of Maryland
Professor Mike Raupp’s Tick Tips:
1. Wear light colored clothing outdoors.
2. Tuck your pants into your socks.
3. Apply tick repellent to clothing.
4. Inspect yourself after going outside.
5. Use tweezers to remove ticks.

Ticks are blood-feeding parasites that are often found in tall grass where they will wait to attach to a passing host. A tick will attach itself to its host by inserting its chelicerae (cutting mandibles) and hypostome (feeding tube) into the skin. The hypostome is covered with recurved teeth and serves as a hammer. During feeding, the tick applies an anticoagulant so blood doesn’t clot and an analgesic so the host doesn’t feel the tick feeding.

The blacklegged or deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) is dependent on the white-tailed deer for reproduction. Larval and nymph stages (immature ticks that cannot reproduce) of the deer tick feed on birds and small mammals. The adult female tick needs a large 3 day blood meal from the deer before she can reproduce and lay her 2000 or more eggs. Deer are the primary host for the adult deer tick and are key to the reproductive success of the tick.

A 2006 study by Penn State’s Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics indicated that reducing the deer population in small areas may lead to higher tick densities, resulting in more tick-borne infections in rodents leading to a high prevalence of tick-borne encephalitis and creating a tick hot-spot.

Rescuing oiled sea turtles is a learn-as-you-go process for veterinarians and other scientists. Treatments may change later says a senior veterinarian for Audubon Nature Institute, which houses the center treating 27 oiled sea turtles.

SEA TURTLES ON THE MEND …
Physical examination
Prophylactic antibiotics
Vital signs
Some get blood samples

De-oiled

Released to an area with a low likelihood of being re-oiled

On a day when most traders and businesses are closed, thousands of tireless worker bees were buzzing on Wall Street at the front door of high-end restaurant, boutique and residences — Cipriani Collection, 55 Wall Street New York City.

Thousands of bees swarmed around the lower panel of the doorway of the high-end restaurant, residences and boutique — Cipriani’s Wall Street on Monday morning.

Live TV : Ustream

UPDATE HATCHLINGS ON WEDNESDAY:

Two or three of three eggs have hatched.

The owners at 3GSTORE.COM — a leading online 3G wireless communication products store — are always experimenting with their technology. Check out their webcam in Cary, Illinois showing the nest of an American Robin.

The American Robin begins to breed shortly after returning to its summer range. It is one of the first North American bird species to lay eggs, and normally has two to three broods per breeding season, which lasts from April to July.

The nest is most commonly located 1.5–4.5 meters (5–15 ft) above the ground in a dense bush or in a fork between two tree branches, and is built by the female alone. The American Robin does not shy away from nesting close to human habitation. Nests are also commonly built near coach lights or other man-made structures near patios and porches. The outer foundation of the nest consists of long coarse grass, twigs, paper, and feathers. This is lined with smeared mud and cushioned with fine grass or other soft materials. A new nest is built for each brood, and in northern areas the first clutch is usually placed in an evergreen tree or shrub while later broods are placed in deciduous trees.

Newly hatched chicks
A clutch consists of three to five light blue eggs, and is incubated by the female alone. The eggs hatch after 14 days, and chicks leave the nest a further two weeks later. All chicks in the brood leave the nest within two days of each other. The altricial chicks are naked and have their eyes closed for the first few days after hatching. While the chicks are still young, the mother broods them continuously. When they are older, the mother will brood them only at night or during bad weather. Even after leaving the nest, the juveniles will follow their parents around and beg food from them. Juveniles become capable of sustained flight two weeks after fledging.

Chick
The adult male and female both are active in protecting and feeding the fledged chicks until they learn to forage on their own. The adult Robin gives alarm calls and dive-bombs predators, including domestic cats, dogs and humans that come near the young birds. The fledglings are able to fly short distances after leaving the nest. The wings of juvenile birds develop rapidly, and it only takes a couple of weeks for them to become proficient at flying. The cryptically colored young birds perch in bushes or trees for protection from predators. Bird banders have found that only 25% of young Robins survive the first year. The longest known lifespan in the wild of an American Robin is 14 years; the average lifespan is about 2 years.

General Info
The American Robin (Turdus migratorius, also called North American Robin) is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin[3] because of the male’s bright red breast, though the two species are not closely related. The American Robin is widely distributed throughout North America, wintering south of Canada from Florida to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast. It is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It has seven subspecies, but only T. m. confinis in the southwest is particularly distinctive, with pale gray-brown underparts.

The American Robin is active mostly during the day and assembles in large flocks at night. Its diet consists of invertebrates (such as beetle grubs and caterpillars), fruits and berries. It is one of the first bird species to lay eggs, beginning to breed shortly after returning to its summer range from its winter range. Its nest consists of long coarse grass, twigs, paper, and feathers, and is smeared with mud and often cushioned with grass or other soft materials. It is among the first birds to sing at dawn, and its song consists of several discrete units that are repeated.

The adult robin is preyed upon by hawks, cats and larger snakes, but when feeding in flocks, it is able to be vigilant and watch other birds for reactions to predators. Brown-headed cowbirds lay eggs in robin nests (see brood parasite), but robins usually reject the cowbird eggs.

Red fox caught on video: A red fox eating and passing through the The Annex Shopping Center near Trader Joe’s.

Nothing beats rolling in the mulch in the middle of the night during a moonset when you are a Red Fox in Chicagoland. Ever alert, this red fox took time to roll around in the mulch and eat a little something found in the parking lot at the Annex of Arlington, where Trader Joe’s, Barnes & Noble and the BoatUS Marine Center are located. The shopping center is located on Rand Road just north of Arlington Heights Road.

Police say a bear bit off a woman’s fingers at a Wisconsin zoo after she ignored barriers and warning signs to try to feed the animal.

Tracy Weiler, 47, lost two full fingers and severed several others. Weiler went past the designated viewing areas, ignored the safety signs, and went up to the fence. When she fed the bear, the bear clamped down on her hand. Her boyfriend, Larry Bosworth, 51, tried to pry open the bears mouth until the bear eventually let go. Bosworth was bitten, also; but he didn’t lose any fingers.

Are there any foxes in Arlington Heights? Yes, almost every week neighbors throughout Arlington Heights sight a fox traveling a route of the neighborhood. Foxes have also been sighted at Lake Arlington, walking the trail or exploring the shoreline. The animals, from the Canidae Family, frequently find residence in Arlington Heights — often with dens near backyard sheds or storage areas. Most people ignore the presence of a fox in the neighborhood, but some worry, especially if there are children playing outside, and the fox is nearby. Fox attacks on humans are not common, but have been reported. In November 2008 an incident in Arizona, USA was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten by a rabid fox. The rabid fox hung on to the jogger’s arm for about one mile, according to the report in BBC (Attacked jogger takes fox for run).

The largest species within the genus Vulpes and the largest of the true foxes, adult red foxes range in weight from 3.6 to 7.6 kg (7.9 to 17 lb) depending on region – foxes living in Canada and Alaska tend to be larger than foxes in the United Kingdom, which are in turn larger than those inhabiting the Southern United States. Very large red foxes can weigh up to 14 kg (31 lb). Head and body length is 46 to 90 cm (18 to 35 in), with a tail of 30 to 55 cm (12 to 22 in). Size can be estimated from tracks. Red fox footprints are normally about 4.4 cm (1.7 in) wide and 5.7 cm (2.2 in) long. A normal Red fox’s trotting stride is about 33 to 38 cm (13 to 15 in).

Eating Behavior
Foxes typically eat 0.5 to 1 kg (1 to 2 lb) of food a day. Although classified as a carnivore, red foxes are omnivorous and are highly opportunistic. Prey can range in size from 0.5 cm insects to 150 cm red-crowned cranes. The majority of their diet consists of invertebrates, such as insects, mollusks, earthworms and crayfish. They also eat plant material, especially blackberries, apples, plums and other fruit. Common vertebrate prey includes rodents (such as mice and voles), rabbits, birds, eggs, amphibians, small reptiles and fish. Foxes have been known to kill deer fawns. They will scavenge dead animals and other edible material they find, and in urban areas, they will scavenge on human refuse. Foxes have been seen eating from pet food bowls left outside. Analysis of country and urban fox diets show that urban foxes have a higher proportion of scavenged food than country foxes.

Foxes usually hunt alone. With their acute sense of hearing, they can locate small mammals in thick grass, and they jump high in the air to pounce on the prey. Foxes also stalk prey such as rabbits, keeping hidden until close enough to catch them in a short dash. Foxes tend to be extremely possessive of their food and will not share it with others. Exceptions to this rule include dog foxes feeding vixens during courtship and vixens feeding cubs.

Red foxes have disproportionately small stomachs for their size and can only eat half as much food in relation to their body weight as wolves and dogs can (about 10% compared with 20%). In periods of abundance, foxes will cache excess food against starvation at other times. They typically store the food in shallow holes (5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 in) deep). Foxes tend to make many small caches, scattering them across their territories rather than storing their food in a single central location. This is thought to prevent the loss of the fox’s entire food supply in the event that another animal finds the store.

There are coyotes in the area too. Do foxes and coyotes get along?
In areas in North America where Red fox and Coyote populations are in te same geographic area, fox territories tend to be located outside of coyote territories. The principal cause of this separation is believed to be active avoidance of coyotes by the foxes. Interactions between the two species vary in nature, ranging from active antagonism, to indifference. The majority of aggressive encounters are initiated by coyotes, and there are few reports of Red foxes acting aggressively toward coyotes except when attacked or when their pups were approached. Foxes and coyotes have sometimes been seen feeding together.

Behavior
Living as it does in a wide variety of habitats, the red fox displays a wide variety of behaviours. In Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids, MacDonald and Sillero-Zubiri state that two populations of the red fox may be behaviourally as different as two species.

The red fox is primarily crepuscular with a tendency to becoming nocturnal in areas of great human interference (and artificial lighting); that is to say, it is most active at night and at twilight. It is generally a solitary hunter. If a fox catches more food than it can eat, it will bury the extra food (cache) to store it for later.

In general, each fox claims its own territory; it pairs up only in winter, foraging alone in the summer. Territories may be as large as 50 km² (19 square miles); ranges are much smaller (less than 12 km², 4.6 sq mi) in habitats with abundant food sources, however. Several dens are utilized within these territories; dens may be claimed from previous residents such as marmots, or dug anew. A larger main den is used for winter living, birthing and rearing of young; smaller dens are dispersed throughout the territory for emergency and food storage purposes. A series of tunnels often connects them with the main den. One fox may only need a square kilometer of land marked by recognition posts that are special smells that come from a scent gland located just above a fox’s tail.

Reproduction
The red fox breeding period varies widely due to its broad distribution; southern populations breed from December to January, central populations from January to February and northern populations from February to April. Females have an annual estrous period of between 1 and 6 days; ovulation is spontaneous. Although a female may mate with several males (who fight amongst each other for the right), she will eventually settle with only one.

Males will supply food to females up to and after birthing, otherwise leaving the female alone with her kits (also called cubs or pups) in a “maternity den”. An average litter size is five kits, but may be as large as 13. Kits are born blind and may weigh as much as 150 grams (0.33 lb). Their eyes are open by two weeks and the kits have taken their first exploratory steps out of the den by five weeks; by ten weeks they are fully weaned.

In autumn of the same year, the young foxes will disperse and claim their own territories. The red fox reaches sexual maturity by ten months of age, and may live for 12 years in captivity but will usually only live three years in the wild.

The scent from this gland is composed of or very closely related to the thiols and thioacetate derivatives used by skunks (most notably Mephitis mephitis) as a defensive weapon. This gives the red fox a skunklike scent detectable by humans at close proximity (about 2 to 3 meters or less) but which is not easily transferred to other animals or inanimate objects; so the concentrations in the gland must be considerably less than in that of the skunk. Vulpes vulpes and other subspecies cannot spray the thiolates like the skunks and does not appear to use the secretion as a defense.

The red fox has been considered a monogamous species, however evidence for polygamy (polygyny and polyandry) includes males’ extraterritorial movements during breeding season (possibly searching for additional mates) and males’ home ranges overlapping two or more females’ home ranges. Such variability is thought to be linked to variation in the spatial availability of key resources such as food.
The red fox primarily forms monogamous pairs each winter, which cooperate to raise a litter of 4–6 kits (also called pups) each year; but in various locales and for various incompletely explored reasons they may also practice polygamy (multiple males sharing a single female and/or vice versa). Young foxes disperse promptly on maturity (approx. 8–10 months).

The reason for this “group living” behaviour is not well understood; some researchers believe the non-breeders boost the survival rate of the litters while others believe there is no significant difference, and such arrangements are made spontaneously due to a resource surplus.

Socially, the fox communicates with body language and a variety of vocalizations. Its vocal range is quite large and its noises vary from a distinctive three-yip “lost call” to a shriek reminiscent of a human scream. It also communicates with scent, marking food and territorial boundary lines with urine and feces.

John James Audubon noted that cross foxes tended to be shyer than their fully red counterparts. He conjectured that the reason was due to the greater commercial value its fur, thus forcing it to adopt a warier behavior to evade hunters.

There are about 37 species that are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to the Vulpes genus of ‘true foxes’. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent.

In the wild, foxes can live for up to 10 years, but most foxes only live for 2 to 3 years due to hunting, road accidents and diseases. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Fox-like features typically include a cute muzzle (a “fox face”) and bushy tail.

Poison trap to be deployed tonight to keep Asian Carp out of Lake Michigan and Great Lakes. FOXNews interview with Stacey Solano of the Illinois Departent of Natural Resources.

Thousands of Asian Carp are being killed tonight because if they are not destroyed they will invade territories and eat every other fish species in sight, which could devastate the Great Lake’s $7 billion fishing industry. The unprecedented fish kill involves dumping gallons of the toxin rotenone into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near Romeoville.

The thousands of dead fish that will result are expected to weigh about 200,000 pounds. Large nets on barges will be used to pick up the fish. The fish will then be transferred and disposed in a landfill. Clean-up efforts are expected to begin tomorrow morning.

The effort of stopping Asian Carp from reaching Lake Michigan also involves shooting electric currents in the water to stun the fish and use sports fisherman to catch the fish. Some of the fish are about 50 inches long.

In April, the Army Corps of Engineers also activated the second of two underwater electric barriers in the canal — the only waterway linking the Chicago River and the Mississippi River.

Rotenone, occurs naturally in the roots and stems of several plants such as the jicama vine plant, is commonly used in powdered or emulsified liquid form in fisheries management to remove unwanted fish species.

Mount Prospect Fire Department responded to the 1800 block of West Catalpa for the report of a dog that returned home with a strange-smelling residue on its paws — sort of like some type of ‘stink bomb.’

Mount Prospect firefighters responded and investigated the dog’s paws and determined the dog had been sprayed by a skunk.

Did you ever see the story about the albino skunk sighted in Arlington Heights? Check out The Cardinal story Albino Skunk Trapped in Arlington Heights (with photos to prove it) …

Arlington Heights Park District keeps up with Fall colors at North School Park near the fountain.

Autumn Harvest
Saturday, October 3, 2009
11:00 AM – 04:00 PM

Fall family festival in North School Park, Arlington Heights Road and Eastman Street, including entertainment, food, scarecrow-building contest, kids activities, hayride and much more!
Celebrate the fall season at North School Park, located at Arlington Heights Road and Eastman Street.

More park information from The Cardinal and Arlingtoncards.com at Arlingtoncards.com/parks

Black-eyed Susan flowers in full bloom in early September in Chicago.

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is an upright annual (sometimes biennial or perennial) native to most of North America, and is one of a number of plants with the common name Black-eyed Susan with flowers having dark purplish brown centers. Other common names include Blackiehead, Brown Betty, Brown Daisy, Brown-eyed Susan, Gloriosa Daisy, Golden Jerusalem, Poorland Daisy, Yellow Daisy, Yellow Ox-eye Daisy.

The genus name honors Olaus Rudbeck, who was a professor of botany at the University of Uppsala in Sweden and was one of Linnaeus’ teachers. The species name refers to the trichomes (hairs) occurring on leaves and stems.

What are those pretty yellow flowers with black centers?
What are those pretty yellow flowers with dark purple centers in late summer?
Black-eyed Susans

The Arlington Heights Park District will be starting the fall broadleaf weed control, beginning September 4 running through November 1. For more information, please contact Jeff Lindstrom at 847.577.3000.

No there is no dog racing at Arlington Park Racetrack, but two coyotes were captured by race track staff during an extraordinary day at the races Wednesday afternoon. An Arlington Heights Police Department animal warden arrived at about 2:00 p.m. to pick them up and transfer the coyotes to another location.

Burmese Python 911 Call Oxford, Florida
9-1-1 Audio of emotional call for help after a Burmese Python apparently killed Shaunia Hare overnight.

Charles Jason Darnell 9-1-1 Call Transcript:
“Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby!”

Our snake, we have a Burmese Python … she’s about 12 foot long … she got out of the cage last night and got into the baby’s crib and strangled her to death.

A 12-foot pet Burmese python escaped from a home terrarium and strangled Shaunnia Hare, 2, in her bedroom in central Florida.

The two-year-old girl was already dead when paramedics arrived at about 10am on Wednesday.

The owner of the Burmese Python snake that is known to be a predator of small mammals is Charles Jason Darnell, who is also the boyfriend of Shaunnia’s mother. He discovered the snake missing from its terrarium and, fearing the worse, went to the Shaunnia’s room, and found her dead. The girl was still wrapped in the snake, which is known to kill by constricting the chest of its prey and causing death by suffocation. Shaunnia also had bite marks on her forehead.

Darnell stabbed the snake and was able to free Shaunnia from its hold on the girl. Still alive, the snake was handled by police and wildlife officials and was placed in a bag then inside a dog crate.

The snake will be placed with someone who has a permit, pending an investigation into the girl’s death.

The Humane Society of the United States reports that at least 12 people have been killed in the US by pet pythons since 1980, including five children.

Burmese pythons are not native to Florida, but have become a problem as some owners irresponsibly have freed pythons into the wild, resulting in a python population of them has taken hold in the Everglades. Some Burmese pythons escaped in 1992 from pet shops during devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew. The snakes have been reproducing in the wild.

When the snakes grow to full size, even human adults can be overpowered by pythons.

Red, yellow, and white tulips are among the favorite signals of Spring.

Get tulips on Amazon …

A hawk poses in a tree.

A young hawk was found with an injured or malformed wing and was sitting still in a tree for hours on Sunday. Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation, Inc. was called on Sunday and returned a call on Monday about noon. The hawk left its perch in north-central Arlington Heights sometime during the day on Sunday.

Dawn Keller, Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation, Inc. founder, advised that rescuers generally do not chase a hawk that is perched 15-feet high in a tree. Advice was given that the hawk will eventually come to the ground to look for food. The hawk’s landing on the ground gives the best opportunity for capture. Flint Creek recommended placing a recycling bin overturned over the hawk and possibly a weight, like a large rock, on top of the overturned recycling bin. Then Flint Creek recommended another call for help to have Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation come out and pick up the hawk. Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation advises against giving food or water to the hawk because of risk of injury to an inexperienced caregiver.

A hawk that is rescued with a broken wing hopefully will get treatment with a splint or even surgery for a hopeful outcome. Successful treatment outcomes result in hawks being released to the wild, while birds with non-functional wings may find residence in a caged sanctuary or educational facility.

More info …
Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation (Official Site)

Hawk ready to launch with its prey — a rabbit.

The hawk swooped down on rabbit and knocked it unconscious, waited a few seconds, then got a firm grip with its talons, looked around and took off into a pine tree in northern Arlington Heights bout 9:30 a.m. Saturday, July 5th, 2008.

Hawk with a rabbit pinned to a tree branch with its talons.

The male red-winged blackbird, about 8 inches long with red-winged shoulders, is aggressively territorial during nesting season, which runs approximately from late May through mid-July.

Redwing Blackbirds usually nest in marshes, fields and bushes — often near lakes and ponds. They can also nest near city parks and large vacant lots, around ponds and especially along the Lake Michigan lakefront.

Male blackbird aggressiveness lasts about one month and in some reports they’ve been known to follow targets for up to 100 yards.

Redwing Blackbirds are popular at Lake Arlington, Busse Woods and Buffalo Creek near Lake Cook Road and Arlington Heights Road.

Several reports of attacks have been reported on West Grand Avenue near Rockwell Street in Chicago.

View Larger Map of West Salem, Mount Carmel, Illinois April 2008 earthquake.

Early morning Friday, a 5.2 magnitude earthquake felt in skyscrapers in Chicago and homes in Cincinnati, but appeared to cause no major injuries or damage. Minor structural damage and messes inside homes and businesses reported in Mount Carmel, 15 miles southeast of the earthquake’s epicenter.

The quake occurred at about 4:37 a.m. and was centered six miles from West Salem, IL. Reports felt in Milwaukee, Des Moines, Iowa, and Atlanta.

The quake is believed to have involved the Wabash fault, a northern extension of the New Madrid fault about six miles north of Mount Carmel, Illinois.

More info from United State Geological Survey …
Epicenter map from USGS …
USGS Report on 2008 April 18 09:37:00 UTC Earthquake Near New Salem …
Earthquake info by state (USGS) …

FOXNEWS Chicago news report of Roscoe Village cougar.

A fully-grown cougar was shot around 5:30 p.m. Monday near 3422 North Hoyne in the Roscoe Village neighborhood of Chicago. The cougar was able to flee about 100 to 150 feet before collapsing and dying in an open space between garages in a back alley between the parallel streets of Hoyne and Hamilton. The cougar, shot in a multitude of about 15 to 18 rounds of Chicago Police Department gunfire, weighed 122 pounds and was five feet long, not including the animal’s tail.

View Satellite Image Map where Chicago cougar was shot and killed.

Roscoe Village neighborhood residents were ordered in their homes while Chicago police chased the mountain lion with guns drawn. Animal control officers with tranquilizer guns had been called earlier in the day when the cougar was first sighted by Rosa Lobato, but the tranquilizers were not available when police officers were confronted with an agitated large cat later in the day. The cougar, roaming a neighborhood near a grade school (Audubon Elementary School), was able to leap six-foot fences during the chase and in one video image is seen sneaking behind a Chicago police officer walking in an opposite direction.

Roscoe Village cougar sneaks behind a Chicago Police officer Monday.

Neighbor Dana Dinello at first thought the cougar was a dog “trotting through” because of its size. Michael Bauknecht was one of the first to call 9-1-1 during the evening sighting. Rich Cebulak also witnessed the cougar and thought it was a dog at first running out from under his porch, but then realized he was seeing ‘a lion.’

A cougar was also reported in Wilmette recently near a CTA transit station April 12 and in North Chicago March 27th.

Chicago cougar story was the top news story on the local news and carried on network news.

View Chicago Area Map showing where cougar was found shot dead and includes suburbs of Wilmette and North Chicago where other cougar sightings were reported (red pushpins).

Cougars are native to America having the greatest range of any wild land animal in the Western Hemisphere. Cougars are stalk and ambush predators. A report in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine reports details of a nonfatal cougar attack of an eight-year-old, 65-pound girl in British Columbia in July 2002. A two-year-old male cougar silently pounced on the girl who was bending over on the beach to look at a hermit crab. The cougar jumped out after hiding beyond the edge of a nearby forest. The 100-pound cat attacked the girl’s neck in the instinctual style of lion predators, sinking its teeth into the posterior aspect of the girl’s neck and carrying her down the beach for about 20 seconds while she did not respond and her body went limp. A group of adults chased and screamed at the attacking cougar and threw stones. The girl’s father approached the cougar as it tried to re-enter the forest “bellowing” loudly with his hands waving over his head. The cougar reversed his direction at first, but then dropped the girl and climbed a tree.

A family physician was part of the group of adults and quickly treated the stricken girl. He found nine puncture wounds to the posterior skull, upper arm, posterior and lateral neck and upper back. There were also scratch marks on her face and back.

The girls lost about 200 ml of blood, but on first impression had no major neck blood vessel damage, no spine fractures and no puncture lungs. At the hospital all serious injuries were ruled out and the only serious damage was a small region of severed trapezius muscle that was removed, and psychological trauma.

The cougar was shot and killed in British Columbia and its head was sent to a lab where a rabies test was negative.

More info …
McKee, Denise (2003). Cougar Attacks on Humans: A Case Report. Wilderness and Environmental Medicine 14 (3): 169–73. Wilderness Medical Society. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.

Get the full news stories from the following Chicago television news stations and newspapers:

cbs2chicago.com | nbc5.com | abc7chicago.com | wgntv | CLTV | FOX NEWS

Keywords: cougar, mountain lion, cat, big cat, Humane Society, PETA

View Larger Map of Arlington Heights Park District Parks, nearby forest preserves and other fitness/recreation points of interest

Parks and more on the map (alphabetical listing) …
Arlington Heights District Administration Center
Arlington Lakes Golf Club
Banta
Berbecker
Betsy Ross Gymnasium
Bill Griffith Field
Camelot
Camelot Connector Parkway
Carefree
Carousel
Carriage Walk
Centennial
Creekside
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Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. Slaughterhouse Video Raises Abuse: USDA to Investigate.

The video documents several weeks of mistreatment of dairy cows at a California slaughterhouse. Workers would do “anything” (inflict pain) to get cows to stand up and remain standing for USDA inspection to qualify to be slaughtered for meat. Instead the “downer” cows should have been humanely euthanized.

A Southern California meat-packing company was barred from supplying school lunch and other programs Wednesday while federal investigators look into videotapes that show slaughterhouse workers mistreating sick or “downer” cattle. The video has prompted the largest beef recall in history.

From the USDA …

Statement by Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer Regarding Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company Two Year Product Recall

February 17, 2008

“Today, USDA is announcing additional actions as a result of the ongoing investigation at Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has evidence that Hallmark/Westland did not consistently contact the FSIS public health veterinarian in situations in which cattle became non-ambulatory after passing ante-mortem inspection, which is not compliant with FSIS regulations. Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection FSIS has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall … more …

More Info …
Care2 Petition Site …
humanesociety.org/farm

USDA.gov

From Iraq to Michigan: Soldier’s Dogs in Iraq Get a New Home in the U.S.

U.S. Army Sgt. Peter Neesley died suddenly and mysteriously on Christmas Day while serving in Iraq. Before he died in his sleep in Iraq (non-combat), he told his family he wanted to bring home two stray dogs (“Mama” and “Boris”) he found and cared for in Baghdad.

Photobucket album for Sergeant Peter Neesley … where Peter Neesley’s family gave special thanks to Rich Crook from Best Friends Animal Society (the man who volunteered to go to Baghdad to get the dogs), Gryphon Airlines, Levin and office, TMG and the Soldiers in Iraq.

Caring for the dogs is the best tribute to Peter Neesley.

More …
Best Friends Animal Society — bestfriends.org
Best Friends Animal Society News

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Everybody has probably inhaled a whole bug while riding a bike or even walking, but here a girl named Joanna intentionally takes on a live praying mantis and chews and swallows one of the larger insects on the planet. Looks like she finishes with some bottled water.

Illinois State health officials reported that the number of rabid bats found in Illinois this year is the highest ever: 99, which is almost twice the total number of rabid animals reported.

All animals considered that tested positive for rabies were bats.

There are no reported cases of humans being infected so far this year.

Quite a few bats have been reported in basements this year, many in August (see this report).

A bronze statue of two white-tailed deer was unveiled Thursday at Cabela’s Hoffman Estates.

A bronze sculpture by sculptor Vic Payne — two white-tailed deer with a “No Hunting” sign — was presented today at the front entrance to Cabela’s in Hoffman Estates.  Illinois schoolchildren voted to select the white-tailed deer as the state animal in 1980. The vote was made official by the General Assembly in 1982.

The huge outdoors store inside is beautiful with dioramas with bobcats, timber wolves, grizzly bears, black bears, lions, moose, deer, rabbits, pheasant and many, many more are displayed throughout the store and museum. There’s also a General Store, a restaurant, a gun library, and the company’s first walk-through aquarium — 160,000 gallons.

A moose in front of a waterfall on the main floor mountain at Cabela’s.

Flathead catfish at the bottom of the aquarium, where many of the fish were caught by employees at nearby quarries in the past few weeks.

Grand opening for Cabela’s Hoffman Estates is Friday morning, September 21, 2007 at 8:00 a.m.

More photographs in The Cardinal photo gallery of Cabela’s Exhibit …

An impressive front entrance to Cabela’s (minus the bronze statue that has yet to be unveiled).

Just north of Cabela’s you can still find corn fields and thick Illinois forests, country roads and pumpkin patches. But, just south and east of Cabela’s is easy access to the Chicago metropolitan area and international connections — namely Sears Centre, Interstate 90, O’Hare International Airport, Arlington Park Racetrack, Woodfield Shopping Mall, and ultimately the City of Chicago. Currently there are only 19 other giant Cabela’s retail stores in the United States. The Chicago area is about to gain a big presence in retail hunting, fishing and outdoor gear. So big, it’s a tourist attraction, in fact.

The 185,000-square-foot, large-format superstore, which includes boat sales and a boat service department, is located 20 minutes from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport within the Prairie Stone Business Park at I-90 and Route 59 near the Sears Centre [MAP/SAT]. Prairie Stone, which also serves as the headquarters for Sears Holdings Corp., is a 780-acre, master-planned business park surrounded by a forest preserve that captures the beauty of the surrounding Midwestern landscape.

Up to four million people are expected to visit the Hoffman Estates Cabela’s store annually, making it one of the top tourist attractions in the state. The Hoffman Estates store showcases the best of the outdoors in a spectacular indoor shopping experience. Cabela’s really brings the outdoors, indoors. Cabela’s stores are known as top-notch educational and entertainment attractions. Equivalent to nearly three football fields in size, Cabela’s is much more than a retail store and will provide unique attractions for every member of the family including:

Customers will be greeted outside Cabela’s by an original bronze signature sculpture. The identity of the sculpture will be revealed at a special unveiling on Thursday, September 20
Other highlights include a restaurant, laser arcade, boat showroom and maintenance shop, furniture department, gun library, general store, fly fishing shop and gift shop.

New boats lined up outside the new Cabela’s for the Chicago metro area — right here in Hoffman Estates.

Cabela’s Hoffman Estates store hours will be Monday – Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 p.m., and 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Sunday. The store address is 5225 Prairie Stone Parkway Hoffman Estates, Illinois. 60192.

Cabela’s Hoffman Estates is one of fourteen new stores expected to open soon, including one in Montreal, Canada.

More photographs in The Cardinal photo gallery of Cabela’s Exhibit …

More info …
Cabelas.com | finance.yahoo.com stock symbol CAB

Cabela’s is publically traded on the New York Stock Exchange with symbol CAB

Keywords: Cabella’s   Cabbela’s  Cabbella’s Cabellas   Cabbelas  Cabbellas

Roadkill in Texas.

Chupacabra means “goat sucker” and Phylis Canion an experienced African hunter thinks she has found one or actually three in Texas.  The one she kept was road kill, and the unusual animal is a mammal, with big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, almost hairless skin.

Phylis had lost 26 of her chickens in the past couple of years — their bodies weren’t eaten; their bodies were sucked and drained of their blood.

Canion and some of her neighbors discovered three 40-pound dead ‘Chupacabras’ over four days in July outside her ranch in Cuero, Texas [MAP/SAT].  Phylis Canion thinks the animals were accidentally killed after they were driven from their dens in heavy rains.

A local vet just thinks they are just ugly dogs. DNA testing might give a better answer.

UPDATE: DNA testing results showed that the animal was a coyote.

The legend of cipi chupacabra began approximately in 1987, when Puerto Rican newspapers El Vocero and El Nuevo Dia began reporting the killings of many different types of animals, such as birds, horses, and, as its name implies, goats. It is predated by El Vampiro de Moca (The Vampire of Moca), a creature blamed for similar killings that occurred in the small town of Moca in the 1970s. While at first it was suspected that the killings were done randomly by some members of a Satanic cult, eventually these killings spread around the island, and many farms reported loss of animal life. The killings had one pattern in common: each of the animals had their bodies bled dry through a series of small circular incisions. Puerto Rican comedian and entrepreneur Silverio P

An Arlington Heights resident called for help from the police animal
warden for a bat in the basement in the 1100 block of West Miner
Street.

Bat Behavior
Most microbats are active at night or at twilight.

Many bats migrate, while others pass into torpor in cold weather but rouse themselves and feed when warm spells permit insect activity. Others retreat to caves for winter and hibernate for six months.

The social structure of bats varies, with some bats leading a solitary life and others living in caves colonized by more than a million bats. The fission-fusion social structure is seen among several species of bats. “Fusion” refers to the grouping of large numbers of bats in one roosting area and “fission” is the breaking apart and mixing of subgroups, with individual bats switching roosts with others and often ending up in different trees and with different roostmates.

Studies also show that bats make all kinds of sounds to communicate with others.

Bats and Disease
Bats are natural reservoirs or vectors for a large number of zoonotic pathogens[6] including rabies, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Henipavirus (ie. Nipah virus and Hendra virus) and possibly ebola virus. Their high mobility, broad distribution, social behavior (communal roosting, fission-fusion social structure) and close evolutionary relationship to humans make bats favorable hosts and disseminators of disease. Many species also appear to have a high tolerance for harboring pathogens and often do not develop disease while infected.

Only 0.5% of bats carry rabies. However, of the very few cases of rabies reported in the United States every year, most are caused by bat bites. Although most bats do not have rabies, those that do may be clumsy, disoriented, and unable to fly, which makes it more likely that they will come into contact with humans. Although one should not have an unreasonable fear of bats, one should avoid handling them or having them in one’s living space, as with any wild animal. If a bat is found in living quarters near a child, mentally handicapped person, intoxicated person, sleeping person, or pet, the person or pet should receive immediate medical attention for rabies. Bats have very small teeth and can bite a sleeping person without detection.

If a bat is found in a house and the possibility of exposure cannot be ruled out, the bat should be sequestered and an animal control officer called immediately, so that the bat can be analyzed. This also applies if the bat is found dead. If it is certain that nobody has been exposed to the bat, it should be removed from the house. The best way to do this is to close all the doors and windows to the room except one to the outside. The bat should soon leave.

Due to the risk of rabies and also due to health problems related to their guano, bats should be excluded from inhabited parts of houses. For full detailed information on all aspects of bat management, including how to capture a bat, what to do in case of exposure, and how to bat-proof a house humanely, see the Centers for Disease Control’s website on bats and rabies. In certain countries, such as the United Kingdom, it is illegal to handle bats without a license.

Where rabies is not endemic, as throughout most of Western Europe, small bats can be considered harmless. Larger bats can give a nasty bite. They should be treated with the respect due to any wild animal.

Bat Anatomy
By emitting high-pitched sounds and listening to the echoes, also known as sonar, microbats locate prey and other nearby objects. This is the process of echolocation, an ability they share with dolphins and whales. Two groups of moths exploit the bats’ senses: tiger moths produce ultrasonic signals to warn the bats that the moths are chemically-protected (aposematism) (this was once thought to be a form of “radar jamming”, but this theory has been disproved); the moths Noctuidae have a hearing organ called a tympanum which responds to an incoming bat signal by causing the moth’s flight muscles to twitch erratically, sending the moth into random evasive maneuvers.

Although the eyes of most microbat species are small and poorly developed, their sense of vision is typically very good, especially at long distances, beyond the range of echolocation. It has even been discovered that some species are able to detect ultraviolet light. Their senses of smell and hearing are excellent.

The teeth of microbats resemble those of the insect eaters. They are very sharp in order to bite through the hardened shell of insects or the skin of fruits.

While other mammals have one-way valves only in their veins to prevent the blood from flowing backwards, bats also have the same mechanism in their arteries.
The finger bones of bats are much more flexible than those of other mammals. One reason is that the cartilage in their fingers lacks calcium and other minerals nearer the tips, increasing their ability to bend without splintering. The cross-section of the finger bone is also flattened instead of circular as is the bone in a human finger, making it even more flexible. The skin on their wing membranes is a lot more elastic and can stretch much more than is usually seen among mammals.

Because their wings are much thinner than those of birds, bats can maneuver more quickly and more precisely than birds. The surface of their wings is also equipped with touch-sensitive receptors on small bumps called Merkel cells, found in most mammals, including humans. But these sensitive areas are different in bats as each bump has a tiny hair in the center, making it even more sensitive, and allowing the bat to detect and collect information about the air flowing over its wings. An additional kind of receptor cell is found in the wing membrane of species that use their wings to catch prey. This receptor cell is sensitive to the stretching of the membrane. The cells are concentrated in areas of the membrane where insects hit the wings when the bats capture them.

One species of bat (A. fistulata) has the longest tongue of any mammal relative to its body size. This is extremely beneficial to them in terms of pollination and feeding – their long narrow tongues can reach deep down into the long cup shape of some flowers. When their tongue retracts, it coils up inside their rib cage.

More info …
Bats and Rabies | CDC Rabies

— mb

The Great Blue Heron — the tallest bird you’ll see in Arlington Heights — is commonly found near the shore of Lake Arlington.

The Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias, is a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae, common all over North and Central America in Alaska, Quebec and Nova Scotia, as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos. The Great Blue Heron is not found in deserts and high mountains where there is no wading water. The Great Blue Heron — the largest North American heron –  is very similar to the European Grey Heron.

Great Blue Herons can be found in a range of habitats, in fresh and saltwater marshes, mangrove swamps, flooded meadows, lake edges, or shorelines, but they always live near bodies of water. Generally, they nest in trees or bushes that stand near a body of water.

Feeding and Diet
Great Blue Herons feed in shallow water or at the water’s edge during both the night and the day, but especially around dawn and dusk. Herons locate their food by sight and generally swallow it whole. Herons have been known to choke on prey that is too large. It uses its long legs to wade through shallow water, and spears fish or frogs with its long, sharp bill. Its diet can also include insects, snakes, turtles, rodents and small birds.
It is generally a solitary feeder. Individuals usually forage while standing in water, but will also forage in fields or drop from the air, or a perch, into water. As large wading birds, Great Blue Herons are able to feed in deeper waters, and thus are able to exploit a niche not open to most other heron species.

Great Blue Herons are known to be a problem for homeowners who have backyard ponds with Koi or other fish as their stock can become victims of hungry Great Blue Herons. Koi’s bright colors put them at a severe disadvantage against predators. Herons can empty a pond of its fish. A well-designed outdoor pond will have areas too deep for herons to stand in, and shade trees overhead to block the view of aerial passersby.

Breeding
This species usually breeds in monospecific colonies (contains only one known species), in trees close to lakes or other wetlands; often with other species of herons living nearby. These groups are called heronry (more accurately than “rookery”). The size of these colonies may be large, ranging between 5 – 500 nests per colony, with an average of approximately 160 nests per colony.

Great Blues build a bulky stick nest, and the female lays three to six pale blue eggs. One brood is raised each year. If the nest is abandoned or destroyed, the female may lay a replacement clutch. Reproduction is negatively affected by human disturbance, particularly during the beginning of nesting. Repeated human intrusion into nesting areas often results in nest failure, with abandonment of eggs or chicks.

Both parents feed the young at the nest by regurgitating food. Parent birds have been shown to consume up to 4 times as much food when they are feeding young chicks than when laying or incubating eggs.

Eggs are incubated for approximately 28 days and hatch asynchronously over a period of several days. The first chick to hatch usually becomes more experienced in food handling and aggressive interactions with siblings, and so often grows more quickly than the other chicks.

Migration
Birds east of the Rockies in the northern part of their range are migratory and winter in Central America or northern South America. From the southern United States southwards and on the Pacific coast, they are year-round residents.

Species and Scientific Classification Information
The herons are wading birds in the Ardeidae family. Some are called egrets or bitterns instead of herons. Within the family, all members of the genera Botaurus and Ixobrychus are referred to as bitterns, and—including the Zigzag Heron or Zigzag Bittern—are a monophyletic group within the Ardeidae. However, egrets are not a biologically distinct group from the herons, and tend to be named differently because they are mainly white or have decorative plumes.

The classification of the individual heron/egret species is fraught with difficulty, and there is still no clear consensus about the correct placement of many species into either of the two major genera, Ardea and Egretta. Similarly, the relationship of the genera in the family is not completely resolved. For example, the Boat-billed Heron is sometimes classed as a heron, and sometimes given its own family Cochlearidae, but nowadays it is usually retained in the Ardeidae.

Although herons resemble birds in some other families, such as the storks, ibises and spoonbills, they differ from these in flying with their necks retracted, not outstretched. They are also one of the bird groups that have powder down.

The members of this family are mostly associated with wetlands, and prey on fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Some, like the Cattle Egret and Black-headed Heron, also take large insects, and are less tied to watery environments. Some members of this group nest colonially in trees, others, notably the bitterns, use reed beds.

The Great White Heron, which was long thought to be a separate species, is a white morph of Great Blue which occurs in southern Florida. It is mainly found near salt water. Wurdemann’s Heron is an intermediate morph, in which only the head is white. The Great White Heron could be confused with Great Egret but is larger, with yellow legs as opposed to black. The Reddish Egret and Little Blue Heron could be mistaken for the Great Blue Heron, but are smaller, and lack white on the head and yellow in the bill.

Jake, Certified Rescue Dog.

Jake pushed through white-hot, smoking debris in search of survivors at the World Trade Center site after 9-11 and died last Wednesday following a battle with cancer.

Owner Mary Flood had Jake put to sleep Wednesday after a last stroll through the fields and a dip in the creek near their home in Oakley, Utah. He was in too much pain at the end, shaking with a 105-degree fever as he lay on the lawn.

Cancer is common in Black Labradors that are Jake’s age, but some wonder if the toxins and smoke he breathed may have killed him.

Owner Mary Flood adopted Jake as a 10-month-old disabled puppy — abandoned on a street with a broken leg and a dislocated hip. He became a world-class rescue dog — a member of Utah Task Force 1, one of eight federal search-and-rescue teams that searched for human remains at ground zero.

On the night of the arrival of Utah Task Force 1, Jake walked into a fancy Manhattan restaurant wearing his search-and-rescue vest and was courteously treated to a free steak dinner under a table.

Jake was one of fewer than 200 U.S. government-certified rescue dogs — a muscular animal on 24-hour call to tackle disasters such as building collapses, earthquakes, hurricanes, avalanches annd other disasters.

Mary Flood and Jake drove 30 hours from Utah to Mississippi, where they searched through the rubble of flooded homes in search of survivors from the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.

Cynthia Otto of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine is researching the health of Sept. 11 dogs, and expects Jake’s autopsy and the other animal being evaluated hellp understand, prevent and treat long-term consequences stemming from 9/11 and other disasters.

Albino skunk after being trapped in May 2007 near a porch where it had excavated a home underneath.

An albino skunk was trapped and removed in late May from a residence in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Skunks are mammals, usually with black-and-white fur, belonging to the family Mephitidae and to the order Carnivora. Occasionally, albino skunks — all white skunks with pink eyes — are found. There are 11 species of skunks, which are divided into four genera: Mephitis (hooded and striped skunks, two species), Spilogale (spotted skunks, two species), Mydaus (stink badgers, two species), and Conepatus (hog-nosed skunks, five species). The two skunk species in the Mydaus genus inhabit Indonesia and the Philippines; all other skunks inhabit the Americas from Canada to central South America.

Skunks were formerly considered to be a subfamily of the Mustelidae family of weasels and related animals (where some taxonomists still place them), but recent genetic evidence shows that they are not as closely related to the Mustelidae as formerly thought.

Skunks are sometimes called polecats because of their visual similarity to the European polecat (Mustela putorius), a member of the Mustelidae family.

Skunk species vary in size from about 15.6 in. (40 cm) to 27 in. (70 cm) and in weight from about 1.1 lb. (0.5 kg) (the spotted skunks) to 10 lb. (4.5 kg) (the hog-nosed skunks) They have a moderately elongated body with reasonably short, well-muscled legs, and long front claws for digging.
Although the most common fur color is black and white, some skunks are brown or gray, and a few are cream-colored. All skunks are striped, even from birth. They may have a single thick stripe across back and tail, two thinner stripes, or a series of white spots and broken stripes (in the case of the spotted skunk). Some also have stripes on their legs.

Anal Scent Glands
The best-known, most distinctive, and often most notorious feature of the skunks is the great development of their anal scent glands, which they can use as a defensive weapon. It is similar to, though much more developed than, the glands found in species of the Mustelidae family. Skunks have two glands, on either side of the anus, that produce a mixture of sulfur-containing chemicals (methyl and butyl thiols) that has a highly offensive smell that most people describe as a combination of the odors of rotten eggs, garlic and burnt rubber. The odor of the fluid is strong enough to ward off bears and other potential attackers, and can be difficult to remove from clothing. Muscles located next to the scent glands allow them to spray with high accuracy as far as 2 to 3 meters (7 to 10 ft). The smell aside, the spray can cause irritation and even temporary blindness, and is sufficiently powerful to be detected by even an insensitive human nose anywhere up to a mile downwind.

An albino skunk using its anal gland as a smelly weapon.

Skunks are reluctant to use their smelly weapon, as they carry just enough of the chemical for five or six uses—about 15 ml —and require some ten days to produce another supply. Their bold black and white coloring however serves to make the skunk’s appearance memorable. Where practical, it is to a skunk’s advantage to simply warn a threatening creature off without expending scent: the black and white warning color aside, threatened skunks will go through an elaborate routine of hisses and foot stamping and tail-high threat postures before resorting to the spray. Interestingly, skunks will not spray other skunks (with the exception of males in the mating season); though they fight over den space in autumn, they do so with tooth and claw.

The singular musk-spraying ability of the skunk has not escaped the attention of biologists: the names of the family and the most common genus (Mephitidae, Mephitis) mean “stench”, and Spilogale putorius means “stinking spotted weasel”. The word skunk is a corruption of an Abenaki name for them, segongw or segonku, which means “one who squirts” in the Algonquian dialect.

Most predatory animals of the Americas, such as wolves, foxes and badgers, seldom attack skunks—presumably out of fear of being sprayed. The exception is the great horned owl, the animal’s only serious predator, which, like most birds, has a poor-to-nonexistent sense of smell.
Skunk spray is composed mainly of low molecular weight thiol compounds, namely (E)-2-butene-1-thiol, 3-methyl-1-butanethiol and (E)-2-butenyl thioacetat, these compounds are detectable at concentrations of  about 2 parts per million.

Removing the scent from objects or creatures can be difficult. Some home remedies suggest using tomato juice or vinegar. A more complex and effective remedy includes application of a mixture containing hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and liquid soap.[5] The thiols, which are responsible for the odor, are not water soluble, even with soap, but the baking soda catalyzes the oxidative ability of the peroxide, which oxidizes the thiols into highly water-soluble thiolates. In an episode of the television program MythBusters, the hydrogen peroxide mix was found to be the most effective smell removal agent.

From Popular Science Aug. 1995, chemist Paul Krebaum provided the recipe for the bathing concoction. One quart of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide, one quarter cup of baking soda, and one teaspoon of liquid soap. Bath your pet in this solution and rinse with tap-water. Krebaum warned that there is no way to store this potion. “If you put the ingredients in a bottle, the whole thing would explode.”

Behavior
Skunks are crepuscular (active during twilight), and are solitary animals when not breeding, though in the colder parts of their range they may gather in communal dens for warmth. During the day they shelter in burrows that they dig with their powerful front claws, or in other man-made or natural hollows as the opportunity arises. Both sexes occupy overlapping home ranges through the greater part of the year; typically 2 to 4 km² for females, up to 20 km² for males.

Unlike the fictional “Flower” in the movie Bambi, real skunks do not hibernate in the winter. However they do remain generally inactive and feed rarely. They often overwinter in a huddle of one male and multiple (as many as twelve) females. The same winter den is often repeatedly used whether under a house or in a tree.

Although they have excellent senses of smell and hearing — vital attributes in a nocturnal omnivore — they have poor vision. They cannot see objects more than about 3 meters away with any clarity, which makes them very vulnerable to road traffic. Roughly half of all skunk deaths are caused by humans, as roadkill, or as a result of shooting and poisoning. They are short-lived animals: fewer than 10% survive for longer than three years.

Skunk Bites and Rabies
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 2,223 cases of rabies in skunks in the United States for the year 2000 – about 31% of reported cases in all species. Skunks trail raccoons as “reservoirs” of rabies, although this varies regionally (raccoons dominate along the Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, skunks throughout the Midwest and down to the western Gulf, and in California). Despite this prevalence, all recorded cases of human rabies from 1990-2002 are attributed by the CDC to dogs or bats.

In case of a skunk bite, follow these directions as a precaution against rabies or other infection. (If a situation with a biting animal is out of control, call 911 emergency services immediately.) If possible without further injury, retain the skunk, dead or alive, to assess and prevent the risk of
spreading disease. If the animal is dead, place on ice or refrigerate. Wash the wound thoroughly with antibacterial soap and water. Place pressure to stop any bleeding. See your doctor or emergency medical services immediately or call 911 to request paramedics.

Ask to have it tested for rabies. Once a doctor has looked over the wound, ask if a tetanus shot is necessary or recommended (tetanus vaccinations are typically good for ten years). When the test results are finished on the skunk, you will be told if you should get the rabies vaccine or not.

In some situations where there is no biting or threat to humans, you may be advised to call your local private animal control agency to trap the skunk and remove it from your property.

Diet
Skunks are omnivorous, eating both plant and animal material but mostly meat. They eat invertebrates (insects and their larvae, found by digging, and earthworms) as well as small vertebrates (rodents, lizards, salamanders, frogs, snakes, birds, moles, and eggs). In the absence of insects or other prey, skunks eat wild fruits and large seeds. In settled areas, skunks also seek human garbage.

Skunk Reproduction
Breeding usually takes place in early spring. Female skunks are induced ovulators, which means that the male skunk mounts the female from behind and bites her on the back of the neck and back, which induces the female’s ovulation. Females excavate a den ready for between one and four young to be born in May. The male plays no part in raising the young and may even kill them. A common scene in late spring and summer is a mother skunk followed by a line of her kits. By late July or early August the young disperse. When the young skunks meet again, they raise their tails vertically. After a little posturing they start to rub against each other, often rolling around in what appears to be an embrace. Older skunks seem less friendly to the young kits.

Skunk Control
As a skunk’s odor is universally considered to be offensive, people living in areas known to be inhabited by skunks are advised to take certain precautions to prevent skunks from taking up residence where they are not wanted. As skunks commonly make their dens in wood or junk piles, it is recommended that these be kept to a minimum. Skunks are scavengers and frequently go after garbage. Garbage should be stored in tightly sealed cans.

Another common method of discouraging skunks is to use a general purpose pesticide on the grounds to reduce the occurrence of the insects upon which skunks feed. This method has its weak points though. By aiming at skunks indirectly the impact on the above mentioned grounds and their insect population is huge.

A fence extending one or two feet into the ground is sufficient to prevent skunks from making a den underneath a house or other structure. If a skunk should take up residence under the building, bags filled with mothballs or washcloths drenched with ammonia can be used to encourage skunks to leave. Securing a rope to the bag or cloth will make removal easy later on. Flour or other non-toxic white powder can be sprinkled around the den entrance to track foot prints. One should check for fresh foot prints from the skunk leading out, but not going back in. It is better to check in the morning as the skunks will be more likely to be active at night.

After all the skunks have left, one should then block up any entrances that the skunk may have used along with the entrance to the skunk’s den. If it is suspected that there are more skunks living in the den, a door should be constructed at the den’s entrance that is hinged at the top, and extends approximately six inches (15 cm) beyond the entrance. It should be placed at a right angle to the direction of travel and should not be air tight. This can be an effective technique as it allows the skunks to exit their den, but makes it difficult for them to get back in.

More Info:
Wood W. F., Sollers B. G., Dragoo G. A., Dragoo J. W. (2002). “Volatile Components in Defensive Spray of the Hooked Skunk, Mephitis macroura”. Journal of Chemical Ecology 28.

Almost seven minutes of pure cicada sound on June 8, 2007 in Riverwoods, Illinois [MAP/SAT]. A few of the cicadas can be seen on some of the close shots, otherwise enjoy the audio and the view of the thick tree canopy in Riverwoods, Illinois. Make sure you turn up your computer speakers loud because that’s the only way to understand the loudness of these cicadas.

You probably would find it hard to believe, but you can drive down Lake Cook Road at about 50 mph east of Milwaukee Avenue with your car windows closed and hear the busy roaring sound of 17-year Cicadas. When you hear it for yourself, you will believe that Cicadas are the loudest and most efficient sound-producing insects in the world. Only the males make the sound as a mating ritual to attract a female and many cicada species tend to gather when calling which increases the total volume of noise. Species have different mating songs to ensure they attract the appropriate mate.

Cicadae are unique in sound-producing insects in that they have a musical drum in their abdomen. The organs that produce sound are ‘tymbales’ ~ paired membranes that are ribbed and located at the abdominal base. Contracting the internal tymbal muscles yield a pulse of sound as the tymbals buckle inwards. As these muscles relax, the tymbals return to their original position. The interior of the male abdomen is substantially hollow to amplify the resonance of the sound. The song intensity of the louder cicadas acts as an effective bird repellent. Males of many species tend to gather which net a greater sound intensity and engenders protection from avian predators.

In addition to the mating song, many species also have a distinct distress call, usually a somewhat broken and erratic sound emitted when an individual is seized. You will notice this sound if you find a cicada being chased by a bird.

A number of species also have a courtship song, which is often a quieter call and is produced after a female has been drawn by the calling song.

What do cicadas sound like? Up close the cicidas sound like the traditional summer ‘locust’ sound, but ‘locust’ is a misnomer (locust are actually grasshopper-type insects), because actually all of these types of insects that make these loud noises are cicadae — it’s just that some are out at different intervals in the summer.  The 17-year Cicada are out in huge numbers every 17 years. And they make a lot of noise! In the background — further from observation — they produce a sort of howling whistle sound.

Prolonged cicada noise at over 90 decibels is possible and could cause hearing damage. The prolonged activation of hair cells in the cochlea in the ear could be damaging. You can almost feel the noise in your ears after a long time if you are forced to listen to the cicada sound for a long time.

For comparision, here is the sound of a single cicada at the front door of LIFETIME FITNESS in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Sound of a single cicada in a tree in front of LIFETIME FITNESS in Schaumburg, Illinois [MAP/SAT]. There was not enough time to get an image of the cicada because LIFETIME FITNESS staff requested the camera be turned off on the LIFETIME FITNESS property. The location is a new construction (less than 17 years-old).  Older trees in a creekbed were undisturbed during construction at the back, northside of the property. Also, Busse Woods (Ned Brown Forest Preserve) is located about one mile east of the location. A small wooded area is also located, just south across Higgins Road (Route 72).

See also:
Chicago Tribune Cicada Central
chicagotribune.com/cicadas

You can report and analyze Cicada Sightings here …

Keywords:
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Listen to the noise of a cicada.
Cicada sound effects.
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Cicada on a post in Orland Park, Illinois on May 27, 2007 [Approx. MAP/SAT].

A cicada is an insect of the order Hemiptera, suborder Auchenorrhyncha, in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with big eyes wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined wings. There are approximately 2,500 species of cicada around the globe, and many remain unclassified. Cicadas live in temperate to tropical climates where they are one of the most widely recognized of all insects, mainly due to their large size and remarkable (and often inescapable) acoustic talents. Cicadas are sometimes called “locusts”, although they are unrelated to true locusts, which are a kind of grasshopper. Cicadas are related to leafhoppers and spittlebugs.

Cicadas do not bite or sting, are benign to humans, and are not considered a pest. Many people around the world regularly complement their standard diet with cicadas: the female is prized for eating as it is meatier. Cicadas have been eaten (or are still eaten) in Ancient Greece, China, Malaysia, Burma, Australia, North and South America and the Congo.

Cicada are employed in the traditional medicines of China and Japan for hearing-related matters, poignant considering that they are known for the mating song the males of the species make. The word cicada is a direct derivation of the Latin cicada; in Greek they are referred to as tzitzikia or tettix.

Cicadas are arranged into two families: Tettigarctidae (treated elsewhere) and Cicadidae. There are two extant species of Tettigarctidae, one in southern Australia, and the other in Tasmania. The family Cicadidae is subdivided into the subfamilies Tettigadinae, Cicadinae and Cicadettinae, and they occur on all continents except Antarctica.

17-year cicada, or magicicada
The largest cicadas are in the genera Pomponia and Tacua. There are some 200 species in 38 genera in Australia, about 450 species in Africa, about 100 in the Palaearctic and exactly one species in England, the New Forest cicada, Melampsalta montana, which is widely distributed throughout Europe. There are about 150 species in South Africa.

Most of the North American species are in the genus Tibicen – the annual or dog-day cicadas (named after the “Dog Days” because they emerge in late July and August). The best-known North-American genus is Magicicada, however. These periodical cicadas have an extremely long life cycle of 13 or 17 years and emerge in large numbers. Another American species is the Apache cicada, Diceroprocta apache.

38 species from five genera populate New Zealand, and all of the species are endemic to New Zealand and the surrounding islands (Norfolk Island, New Caledonia).
[edit]Description

Diemeniana frenchi, an Australian species
Adult cicadas, sometimes called imagines, are usually between one to two inches long. Although there are some tropical species that reach six inches, e.g. Pomponia imperatoria from Malaysia. Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart on the sides of the head, short antennae protruding between or in front of the eyes, and membranous front wings. Desert cicadas are also one of the few insects known to cool themselves by sweating, while many other cicadas can raise their body temperatures voluntarily to around 104°, even when the air temperature is only 65°.

Male cicadas have loud noisemakers called “tymbals” on the sides of the abdominal base. Their “singing” is not stridulation as in many other familiar sound-producing insects like crickets (where two structures are rubbed against one another): the tymbals are regions of the exoskeleton that are modified to form a complex membrane with thin, membranous portions and thickened “ribs”. They rapidly vibrate these membranes with strong muscles, and enlarged chambers derived from the tracheae make their body serve as a resonance chamber, greatly amplifying the sound. Some cicadas produce sounds louder than 106 dB (SPL), among the loudest of all insect-produced sounds. They modulate their noise by wiggling their abdomens toward and away from the tree that they are on.

Only males produce the cicadas’ distinctive sound. Both sexes, however, have tympana, which are membranous structures used to detect sounds; thus, the cicadas’ equivalent of ears. Adult cicadas have a sideways-ridged plate where the mouth is in normal insects.

Sound comparison of multiple cicadas from indoors to outdoors.

Cicadas are the most efficient and loudest sound-producing insects in the world. Conversely, some small species have songs so high in pitch that the noise is inaudible to humans. Only the males resound as a mating ritual to attract a female and many cicada species tend to gather when calling which increases the total volume of noise. Species have different mating songs to ensure they attract the appropriate mate.

Cicada Song
Cicadae are unique in sound-producing insects in that they have a musical drum in their abdomen. The organs that produce sound are ‘tymbals’ ~ paired membranes that are ribbed and located at the abdominal base. Contracting the internal tymbal muscles yield a pulse of sound as the tymbals buckle inwards. As these muscles relax, the tymbals return to their original position. The interior of the male abdomen is substantially hollow to amplify the resonance of the sound. The song intensity of the louder cicadas acts as an effective bird repellent. Males of many species tend to gather which net a greater sound intensity and engenders protection from avian predators.

Sound of a single cicada in a tree in front of LIFETIME FITNESS in Schaumburg, Illinois [MAP/SAT]. There was not enough time to get an image of the cicada because LIFETIME FITNESS staff requested the camera be turned off on the LIFETIME FITNESS property. The location is a new construction (less than 17 years-old).  Older trees in a creekbed were undisturbed during construction at the back, northside of the property and Busse Woods (Ned Brown Forest Preserve) is located about one mile east of the location. A sma
ll wooded area is also located, just south across Higgins Road (Route 72).

In addition to the mating song, many species also have a distinct distress call, usually a somewhat broken and erratic sound emitted when an individual is seized. A number of species also have a courtship song, which is often a quieter call and is produced after a female has been drawn by the calling song.

Cicada Life Cycle
After mating, the female cuts slits into the bark of a twig and deposits her eggs there. She may do so repeatedly, until she has laid several hundred eggs. When the eggs hatch, the newborn nymphs drop to the ground, where they burrow and start another cycle. Most cicadas go through a life cycle that lasts from two to five years. Some species have much longer life cycles, e.g. the Magicicada goes through a 13- or even 17-year life cycle. These long life cycles are an adaptation to predators such as the cicada killer wasp and praying mantis, as a predator could not regularly fall into synchrony with the cicadas. Both 13 and 17 are prime numbers, so while a cicada with a 15-year life cycle could be preyed upon by a predator with a 3- or 5-year life cycle, the 13- and 17-year cycles allow them to stop the predators falling into step.

The insects spend most of the time that they are underground as nymphs at depths ranging from about one to eight and one-half feet. The nymphs feed on root juice and have strong front legs for digging.

In the final nymphal instar, they construct an exit tunnel to the surface and emerge. They then moult on a nearby plant for the last time and emerge as an adult. They shed their skins when they moult, and their abandoned skins are often found still clinging to the bark of trees.

The males live until mid-June and the females live into July. A new generation of cicadas will hatch weeks later and burrow into the earth for another 17 years.

Cicadas as Pests
When female cicadas make slits in small branches of trees to lay eggs, the small slits can damage young trees and shrubs. Landscapers and homeowners put colorful, fine netting, known as tulle over entire small, young trees to prevent infestation. A lot of lavender and bright green tulle netting has been spotted in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Tulle Netting to Protect Trees and Shrubs

Northwest Mosquito Abatement is hitting the streets, but the mosquitos

are already out biting after dark and during warm cloudy days.

– mb