Earth Almanac: July/August 2007

Fox in the Grass

Now young fox snakes, newly emerged from eggs and less than a foot long, are hunting amphibians and juvenile rodents. As they mature they’ll take larger prey—mostly mammals, which they kill by throwing coils around them and squeezing. There are two morphologically similar species—the western fox snake, found in farmlands, prairies, and open woodlands of the eastern plains and western Great Lakes states; and the lighter, redder eastern fox snake, found in and around marshlands of Michigan, northern Ohio, and southern Ontario. These large, beautiful constrictors are rat snakes, but they acquired their more attractive name from a decidedly unattractive defense mechanism. Pick one up, and it will hose you down with musk that smells like fox urine.

Little Big Fish

You’re waist deep in the sea anywhere from Maine to the Yucatán when a red-tinged, 25-foot shadow veers toward you. Now it’s 20 feet away and closing fast. As you splash shoreward you can almost hear the theme from Jaws. Amoeba-like, the apparition swells and splits. You have crossed the path not of one fish but of thousands, none longer than four inches. They are bay anchovies (a.k.a. “rainbait,” because they often dimple the surface for acres). Grazing on zooplankton, these superabundant, semi-translucent specks of protoplasm fuel vast ecosystems—from seabirds to tuna, mackerel, striped bass, weakfish, jacks, and bluefish, as well as the pelagic fish and mammals that eat these predators.

Look for bay anchovies in late summer sandwiched between surface explosions of game fish and dipping, screaming terns and gulls. Catch one of the game fish and it will disgorge anchovies all over the inside of your boat (where many will dry and stick as if glued). Bay anchovies are extremely tolerant of changes in salinity and low oxygen levels, sometimes moving into warm estuarine waters that are almost fresh. In one experiment, survival of young increased as dissolved oxygen decreased, presumably because oxygen-depleting organic matter was feeding their zooplankton prey.

Summer Treats