Wildlife early 2009

[mark smyth]

what you need is the smallest Brinsea egg incubator. I sold mine last year for £50 to a reptile breeder

[Anthony Darby]

The department used to have an observation egg incubator, but it went walkabout many years ago. As long as I can keep a box of damp vermiculite containing the eggs at between 21 and 28^oC it should be OK?

[Paddy Tobin]

Lesley,

Your posting on the butterfly invites so many wisecracks - but I will resist for the sake of good taste.

Paddy

[Anthony Darby]

what you need is the smallest Brinsea egg incubator. I sold mine last year for £50 to a reptile breeder

Not sure that would be of any use as the eggs need to be half buried in vermiculite and their orientation fixed.

[annew]

What about a thermostatically controlled propagator?

[annew]

BTW Etta is magnificent.

[Lesley Cox]

This a hilarious posting, Lesley, it just made my morning and you captured the shot of the recovering butterfly admirably!

Red admirably you mean?

[Lesley Cox]

Wise man Paddy.

And well done Etta!

[Anthony Darby]

What about a thermostatically controlled propagator?

I have a thermostatically controlled environmental chamber and, as I said, the baby incubator which is also controllable to any temperature. It even has humidity control.

[Lvandelft]

We are living in the Dutch bulb district, which area runs merely along the dunes.
In the dunes wildlife is originally limited to birds rabbits and other small animals,
but through people  fox and roe deer were brought in.
As the area where they live is limited it is obviously that they get over-populated.
So they come out of the dunes seeking for food and logically they come than into the bulb fields.

A big part of the dunes are managed by the City of Amsterdam,
and the magistrates there, are against shooting (for political reasons).
And they don’t want to compensate the damage to the growers either.
This is going on for years now and the damage gets more and more.

I show a picture of a tulip field where in winter the roe deer
were at work during the night.
In front of the picture you see the fence to keep them out
and since a few weeks gardeners are allowed to make electric fencing round their fields too.
The growers are now also allowed to shoot two animals per day but only during day light.

These smart animals come always when it is dark….. 
 

[cohan]

In the dunes wildlife is originally limited to birds rabbits and other small animals,
but through people  fox and roe deer were brought in......
A big part of the dunes are managed by the City of Amsterdam........
In front of the picture you see the fence to keep them out
and since a few weeks gardeners are allowed to make electric fencing round their fields too.
The growers are now also allowed to shoot two animals per day but only during day light.

These smart animals come always when it is dark….. 
 

people usually do more harm than anything when they meddle in ecosystems--hopefully we will get better at it, since there are few unaltered ecosystems anymore!
is that fence enough to keep out the roe deer? here where people have gardens or fields they need to protect from deer, they put fences that are quite high (more than a couple of metres)..this would seem like the best solution for the farmers, no?...

[Calvin Becker]

Here are two pics of a recent visitor on the veranda in Pietermaritzburg. Luckily it decided to stay out on the open and not hide in amongst the pots!

[annew]

What about the octopus in the box?

[Maggi Young]

That is a particularly apt question, I think, Anne.......... excuse me for a moment.... just making note not to think about visiting Calvin with all those critters around....
 ..... though such a visit would surely turn one's life around........

[mark smyth]

Quite amazing that a SA snake can climb like a gekko