ENHS Nature Trails December 2005 Article 2

December's Natural History Questions

Question: Miss Editor, do turkeys really drown if they look up when it is raining? (Information given last month on Nature Trails' back page, taken from Aristotle's web site.) - Suspicious Reader

Answer: Well, the information made you think and question didn't it? That's a skill we need to keep nurturing--so we've started this column. As far as the myth is concerned about turkeys drowning if they look up, here's the skinny from our ENHS expert, Reida Kimmel: I believe the legend does have some basis in truth. Turkeys love water and shiny things. They play by our pond, wade in it, and eat the bugs on the water lilies and heaven knows what else. If it rains, they reach up to catch the drops. After awhile they go into their pen or hang out in the horse barn, pooping on the poor horses' beds. If someone had very young or somewhat unhealthy turkeys that got very wet in the rain, then those birds could succumb quite suddenly, within hours, to pneumonia or coccidiosis, and the owners could claim strangulation and drowning.

Question: I was walking the beach near Yachats recently when I found some plants washed up on the tide. There were no leaves, but the stalks looked very much like bamboo, except for the extraordinary color which was a red to purple (about the color of rhubarb). Is this some exotic species of bamboo, or something from The Little Shop of Horrors?

Answer: David Wagner was able to determine that, indeed, it was from The Little Shop of Horrors, Polygonum cuspidatum, commonly known as Japanese knotweed. It is sometimes called Mexican bamboo because it looks a little like bamboo when the leaves are gone. It quickly overruns most native species and forms riparian monocultures both inland and along the coast.

Question: Why are there always so many dead worms on the pavement after a good rain? I know, the cars ran over them, but why have they crawled out there in the first place?

Answer: This time we looked to the web for our answer. Many websites stated that worms will drown if they stay in their burrows when it rains heavily, so they crawl out onto higher ground, the pavement. When this information was published in Discover magazine, more than one reader responded that this was impossible due to the way worms breathe--they can lsurvive in standing water as well as dirt. One biologist, Richard Wahl from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, responded, “Worms of all kinds are highly susceptible to desiccation. They breed when it rains. They come out of the ground to find each other and to lie side by side in a mating posture, a difficult thing to do in the confines of their burrows. The only time earthworms can safely come to the surface to breed is when the ground is thoroughly soaked." I did confirm that Richard Wahl was a biologist at Shippensburg University. However, I ask our readers if they might have additional information on the Annelid carcasses I see lying all over the pavement after a heavy rain--Such an ending to a little recreation.

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