Wild Earth Integration

Welcome to the first line of products from Wild Earth Artifacts!

Each of these pieces are hand crafted, roughly 3/4” – 1” in length. Perfect for stringing onto a necklace as a focal bead, using along with ribbon as a gift tag, or hanging as an ornament.

For a closer look at each piece and more information – just click the image you like! There you will find details about the piece, along with price. (Each is between $8-$13)

To order, just contact me at wildearthintegration (at) gmail (dot) com! I will be happy to personalize for you – so let me know if you’d like ribbon or an Artifact gift tag along with your order!

There will be many other pieces in the ‘Love the Earth’ theme, so to see your favorites added, feel free to leave suggestions in the comments! What would *you* like to see?

I’m not prone to posting cutesy videos for the sake of cutesy videos, but today I’m making an exception.

Why? Because I can.

Sloths are a fantastic reminder of just how cool and varied life on this planet can get. But apart from being absolutely adorable, there’s something else you should know about sloths.

They’re a whole ecosystem unto themselves.

See, sloths hang around in trees and move at a snail’s pace. Well, a sloth’s pace. You get it. They leave their tree only to go to the bathroom, which they do only about once a week. Inside a sloth’s fur are sloth moths. There are only 3 species of sloth moths and they only live on sloths.

So, when a sloth makes its weekly trip down the tree to the loo, the sloth moth flies out of the sloth’s fur and hops onto the fresh dung. It lays its eggs onto the new food source (mmm?) and eventually the sloth returns back up the tree.

When the eggs hatch, the sloth moth larvae eat the sloth pellets. When they’re fully grown, they fly up to the same sloth and start living in its fur, just like it’s mom.

Sloth moths aren’t the only thing living on sloths either. Because they move so slowly and don’t really go for personal hygiene, algae is able to grow on their backs. Sloths are literally living gardens. This algae is food to none other than, you guessed it – the sloth moths.

Ok, bring on the cute! Have a wild Friday!

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Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

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When I say the words “industrious real estate tycoon”, you’ll probably conjure up images of that oddly haired fellow who’s always saying “You’re fired” on national television.

Yes, Donald Trump might be awesome, but is he awesome as seen from space?

I didn’t think so.

Check this out. Scientists have discovered the world’s largest beaver dam – which sounds relatively unimpressive, until you realize the dam thing (har har) can be seen from space.

You already why beavers rock, but this dam takes architecture to the extreme. Located in Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta, it measures 2,800 feet. To put that in perspective, that’s 8 football fields. Or, 2,800 rulers.

This slams the previous world record holder by close to 200 metres!

So, the next time you’re poring over NASA images, you can show off and pinpoint one of nature’s great marvels.

No word yet on whether the beavers are looking to expand on their franchise, but I hear Trump is in talks with them to head up his Alberta division.

Keep it wild!

Happy Friday folks!

In the spirit of the end of the week, I”m going to keep it short ‘n snappy today. Consider it Fish Friday!

Animals can do some pretty incredible things. Recently the stingray has been in the news for its ability to use water as a tool to flush out its prey. Back in the day (now I sound like an old woman), tool use was a trait that only humans were thought to have. We couldn’t have been more wrong, and I’m loving that we’re starting to open our eyes to the amazing feats of animals.

But stingrays aren’t the only fish out there to use water as a tool. There’s another species out there that uses water in a way that just might blow your mind. You have to see it to believe it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the Archer Fish.  Words don’t do it justice, so grab a cuppa and enjoy watching the sniper of the fish world.

For those of you who haven’t yet entered my Great Goodall Giveaway, swing by here to check it out – only one week left! Who doesn’t like free stuff?

Stay wild and I’ll see you Monday!

Hello everybody! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones and didn’t succumb to the turkey coma. I sure did. Turkey coma included.

With the New Year approaching faster than a falcon dive, now is a great time to reflect on the past year, as well as the things you’re thankful for.

This Wednesday, I thought I’d give you a little rundown of some of the things that many people take for granted in nature, but without which, we’d be toast.

• Water. It can get pretty easy to take water for granted. Not only is it available from your tap on a whim, but nearly every store in the developed world has a few choices for bottled water as well. But I’m not just talking about the availability of water – I’m talking about the properties of water itself. For example, the molecules of water (H20) expand when they freeze. This means that during winter, ice floats on the top of our lakes, rivers and streams. Think about that – if ice didn’t float, whole lakes would freeze through and we’d lose all of the animals within them. The unique properties of water are also what allow for snowflakes to form and your bodies to function properly. Water is the only substance on Earth that behaves like this. How cool is that? Go ahead, drink up.

• Trees. You can often be written off as a tree hugging hippie if you mention that you love trees, but really – you owe your life to trees. Forget about how beautiful they are or how they provide shade and wind barriers when you need them. Trees exhale the very basic element you need to live: oxygen. Deep inside a tree’s leaves are little green bundles that undergo photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a fancy way of saying ‘makes food from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide’. When you breathe out, you exhale the carbon dioxide that trees need to make their food. As a way of saying thank-you, trees release oxygen during the process. This is the oxygen you breathe in everyday. It’s a win-win, but most people wander around oblivious to where their clean air comes from. Don’t be one of those people.

• Your body. Yes, although you are probably quite festive from a week of splurging on holiday treats, egg nog and mashed potatoes, your body is really something you should marvel at. When you bump into the corner of the coffee table, you get a lovely bruise. That’s self healing. When you carry on with your day-to-day life, a small section of your brain is running the show, making sure you breathe, blink, sweat and have a pulse. You don’t have to even think about it, it just happens. Awesome. And the most badass fact of all? You began as a single cell. Today, you are a mass of trillions of cells, all specially designed to do their jobs. You have eye cells and bone cells and stomach cells and brain cells. But they all started out as one cell, that divided into two, that divided into four. The rest is history.

Of course, there are thousands of aspects of the natural world to be thankful for. But to me, these three are the kickers. Maybe a good New Year’s resolution for 2010 would be to sit back and reflect on how awesomely intricate this world really is. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher and also one of the world’s first scientists once said “In all things in nature there is something of the marvelous.”

He was right.

Morning all! I hope your Tuesday is going swimmingly and the festivities are swinging into full gear. I just wanted to let you know that I wrote a guest post over at Save The Reptiles (run by the totally awesome and brilliant Candace, many of whom you all know as @CandyWWGM).

Once you’re done cruising around here, swing by to her website and learn 6 Croc Secrets You Should Know Before Setting Foot in the Water – I promise you’ll learn something new!

Have a great day everybody! See you tomorrow!

We all have our secrets. Today, I thought I’d introduce you to one of mine.

This is Gerry. Say hi to him!

Gerry is an Eastern Gray Squirrel that has been inspiring me for months. Everyday, he comes around to the patio outside of my office (lucky writer, I know) and eats binges on the seeds that I have so graciously tossed out for the wildlife. Of course, Gerry has grown to be a pretty hefty squirrel (in fact he probably weighs about as much as a cat at this point), so the birds have to get up pretty early to get the jump on him!

As a busy writer/illustrator/educator/aspiring nature superhero, life can get pretty hectic. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget about the simple things – the reasons why we do what we do. For me, animals, nature and science are my thing. My shtick. Having Gerry (and his assorted friends) around outside the door is a great reminder of why it is that I do what I do. I know many of you reading are also nature superheros, so Gerry is a reminder to you too. But I digress.

So, my top 3 favorite things about squirrels? Glad you asked.

#3 – They have no thumbs. Yep, they accomplish all of their squirrel-tastic tasks without any thumbs. If I had no thumbs, my writingwouldprobablylooklikethis. But this guy climbs trees, scares off cats (I’ve seen him do it!) and otherwise kicks squirrel booty without so much as an opposable digit. Fantastic.

#2 -They stand up for what they believe in, and when needed, yell at you. We’ve all been minding our own business, walking under a tree, when suddenly we hear it. Grinding chitter-chatter coming from above our heads. Alas, it is Gerry (or one of his relatives) reaming us out for daring to walk under his tree. Forget the fact that we outweigh Gerry a hundred-fold and that he’s got no thumbs. Nope, squirrels stick up for themselves. No matter how big (or human) their foes are.

#1 – That crazy tail-bopping thing they do. If you’ve spent any time with squirrels (why wouldn’t you, really?) – you know what I’m talking about. They’ll hop and scamper along, with their tails bopping up and down in weird, jumbly rhythms. I’m convinced that there is some sort of behavioral/evolutionary reason for all of this bopping, but I have yet to devise a scheme experiment to figure it out. Is it a signal of some kind? Reflective of their physiology? Only Gerry knows.

And now my friends, I leave you with a picture of Gerry – decked out 300 style. You know, the movie about the Persians and the battle for Thermopylae? He is a squirrel to be reckoned with. Epic, no?

I’d love to hear your own backyard wildlife stories – feel free to introduce us in the comments!