Finally Identified The Culprit Who Ate My Flowers

Today's blog post isn't related to puzzles. It's about wild animals around my house.

I've been growing Gazania in the backyard garden. 

The Gazania is a hardy plant. They make my garden look bright and cheerful.

However, there is one issue. Something eats the flower buds after the sun goes down.

I already knew Eastern bearded dragons that live around my house love to eat Gazania's flowers. 

They don't hesitate to eat Gazania in the daytime even though I watch them just in front of them. They eat my flowers confidently, look at me and seem to say, "What! Why are you looking at me?"

 

I'm not happy they eat my flowers, yet they don't damage the flower seedlings; they eat only a little, so it's all right.

 

On the other hand, something that eats my Gazania in the backyard is a bit different. 

 

 

Something eats many buds, so I cannot enjoy the flowers. They are all eaten before they flower. Therefore, I put a trail camera in the backyard. The first three nights, the camera couldn't get any animals. It was the fourth try this morning.

I Finally got some proof! Several videos were taken, and two successfully recorded the offender who ate Gazania. It was a wallaby. The camera recorded a chewing sound, too.

Then I went out of the backyard to check on the Gazania. Surely, there are buds on the ground that were bitten off.

How can I take action to prevent this? Covering the Gazania with a net is probably the best idea. Still, it's inconvenient to get rid of the net every morning. I changed my mind, I could leave them because the seedlings weren't seriously damaged.

There wasn't much rain this winter in Queensland, and the temperature was higher than usual. I believe this summer, many bushfires will occur, and it will be a hard time for wild animals. I decided not to worry about wild animals eating my flowers. 

I welcome them to visit my backyard. 

But don't eat uprooted flowers, mate!

The Mystery of cube-shaped poop

I know this blog is supposed to be written as a puzzle blog. I should write about a topic that is related to puzzles, but I cannot ignore this unique topic. Before I start writing, I will tell you that this topic may not be suitable for people who are about to eat a meal. The reason is, as you already know seeing the title, it's about wombat droppings.

All right. I warned you enough, so if you feel awful while you are eating your meal, I'm not going to accept any complaints, O.K?

I have read an article about wombats. It's on the National Geographic website. The surprising thing is that wombats are the only animals in the world that produce cube-like shaped scat. This article intrigued my curiosity. It's like a biological puzzle.

There is one postulation that is common which is cube-shaped scat cannot be rollable and can be put around the territory to mark its territory to other wombats.

Wombat poo is cube shaped so they can mark their territory with it but no one knows how they make their poo square #advancedwombattechnology pic.twitter.com/fIvMhyRoWS

— Diana S. Fleischman (@sentientist) 2016年11月3日

This postulation describes the purpose of using cube-shaped poop, it's not how it is made. I'm interested in how it can be cube-shaped. I thought it's strange that a cube which is about 2 cm size exists in nature. There must be a reason.

The first thing that popped into my head is a process of making macaroni. There are different shapes of macaroni extruders and depending on the extruder attachment, the shape of macaroni would be very different.

Patricia Yang, a researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that at first she thought that they have square anuses. However, the samples of intestines of two roadkill wombats showed the expectation was wrong. The pig intestine is a relatively uniform elasticity, but the wombat intestine is a much more irregular shape. She thinks that two distinct ravine-like grooves in the wombats' intestine help make cube-shaped poop.
Hmm, the wombat mystery is getting more interesting.

Mike Swinbourne, from the University of Adelaide, says that the shape of wombat poop is more likely related to the dry environment.
Bill Zeigler, Brookfield Zoo and Peter Clements, the president of the organization of Wombats SA, have the same opinion that two elements, intestine and moisture, might be the reasons.

What I thought strange was "two distinct ravine-like grooves of a wombats' intestine." I wonder why there are two grooves, not four? I couldn't find the picture of two grooves. I wonder if two grooves are spiral or straight?

I think it's rare to see something shaped like a polyhedron in nature. I know bacteriophages have a dodecahedron head or there are rocks that are shaped like a hexagon. I don't think those are strange but wombats!

Can you guess how it's made?
This must be a new type of puzzle challenge from wombats!

photo credit: tomosuke214 ウォンバットの「チューバッカ」＠多摩動物公園 via photopin (license) photo credit: Andrew C Wallace upwind via photopin (license)

 

We need to have a conversation about wombats - The Oatmeal 

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/wombats

Scolded by a lizard

I was born and grew up in Japan and hadn't seen large lizards. Here in Australia, there are lots of large lizards living and one large lizard seems to live in my yard.

One day, I came home from the local supermarket and found a large lizard was sitting in front of the garage. I wanted to park my car inside of it, but the lizard didn't want to move at all. Lizards in Japan run away quickly when they see a human. Australian lizards don't care about humans.

I couldn't park my car and got out of the car and got closer to the lizard. It looked at me without hesitation. I expected if I got closer to it, the lizard should have run away.
Then, what happened was the lizard got angry at me. I didn't expect it at all. What a surprise, I was scolded by the lizard!
He seemed to take offense at me and threatened me. I know he was a descendant of dinosaurs and he is large as a lizard, but luckily, he was smaller than me. I took a long branch and moved it in front of him, and finally he left reluctantly.

It was funny that the lizard seemed like declaring "I have a right to stay here!" Yes, you were right.
You and your ancestors have been living here for a long time. I'm a new resident, I promise you that I'm not going to interrupt your afternoon sleep, except you are sleeping in front of the garage.

A Puzzle For A Gorilla

There was a gorilla named Blublu in Ueno Zoo, Tokyo. He came from Cameroon to Japan in 1957 when he was four years old. He was a very popular gorilla and there were people who went to the zoo just for meeting him. He died in 1997 and he is still being handed down even now.

There was the time he had to be separated from his girlfriend gorilla because she suffered from rheumatism and needed a treatment. Suddenly, he became lonely and was depressed and he started pulling his fur out. Gorillas are sensitive animals and he couldn't resist loneliness.

The keepers who were in charge of gorillas heard that other zoos had succeeded in reducing their stress by showing TV programs. Then Blublu got a TV set. He loved African animal TV programs and stopped pulling out his fur.

photo credit: Eric Kilby Gorilla Posing via photopin (license)

 

I remember another way of reducing gorillas' stress. I'm not sure it was Blublu or another gorilla, anyway zoo keepers gave a rope to gorillas. It's not just a rope, the keepers intentionally made lots of knots.

What happened was, the gorilla played with the rope. He untied knots. It seemed like he loves to play with it. The rope was the same as a puzzle for him. I know there are people who don't believe it, but I heard that the gorilla's DNA is more than 98% the same as a humans' DNA. No wonder gorillas enjoy playing with the rope like a puzzle.

Gorillas shall not live on feed alone.