Category: fauna

Odocoileus virginianus

white tailed deer
Tilly had her first close encounter with a wild ungulate by the Rivanna river last week. Tilly didn’t give chase. Something I didn’t know about deer? “Though almost entirely herbivorous, white-tailed deer have been known to opportunistically feed on nesting songbirds, field mice, and birds trapped in mist nets, if the need arises.”–Wikipedia

Odocoileus virginianus

4 lane 35mph
A pedestrian has a 3.5% chance of being killed by a vehicle traveling at fifteen miles per hour, but the likelihood of death increases to 37% when the vehicle is traveling at thirty-one miles per hour and to 83% when the vehicle is traveling at forty-four miles per hour.–Why Pedestrian-Friendly Street Design is Not Negligent Michael Lewyn

Eulipotyphl Talpidae

Riverview trail
A mole’s diet primarily consists of earthworms and other small invertebrates found in the soil, and a variety of nuts. The mole runs are in reality “worm traps”, the mole sensing when a worm falls into the tunnel and quickly running along to kill and eat it. Because their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyze earthworms, moles are able to store their still-living prey for later consumption. They construct special underground “larders” for just this purpose; researchers have discovered such larders with over a thousand earthworms in them. Before eating earthworms, moles pull them between their squeezed paws to force the collected earth and dirt out of the worm’s gut.–Wikipedia