Comet PANSTARRS becomes visible in Manitoba Skies!

Comet PANSTARRS becomes visible in Manitoba Skies!

Posted on by Scott Young
Posted on: Thursday March 7, 2013

Beginning March 7, Comet PANSTARRS will become visible in the evening sky for observers in Manitoba. This is a cool chance to see a comet, those mysterious visitors from the ragged edge of the solar system that occasionally grace our skies. But, you’ll need a pair of binoculars (and clear skies) for the best view.

 

What is Comet PANSTARRS?

It’s a small chunk of ice only a few kilometers in diameter that is in a long, oval-shaped orbit around the sun. Most of the time it is totally invisible, but right now it is swinging close past the sun. The sun’s heat vaporizes some of the ice, and the solar wind blows the dust and gas back into a tail which can stretch for a million kilometers or more.  There are millions of comets out there, but usually they are too far from both the Sun and the Earth to be visible except in large telescopes.

 

What’s with the name?

PANSTARRS is the name of the program that discovered it – the PANnoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System. Comets are named after their discovers, which in the past meant the person who first saw it. Nowadays, in the realm of automated telescopes making discoveries without human intervention, it often means an acronym instead of a name. You can learn more about the PAN-STARRS system here.

 

How do I see it?

There is a finder chart from Sky and Telescope magazine here. While the comet is bright enough to be visible to the unaided eye, it is also in very bright twilight skies right after sunset. Most observers will probably need binoculars to see it, and a clear western horizon with no buildings, trees or streetlights to distract. The comet is about second magnitude, which is about as bright as the stars of the Big Dipper, so it should be visible if the sky is clear and haze-free. It will likely look like a faint fuzzy blob, and the tail may or may not be visible. Comets are notoriously unpredictable, and can change their appearance in a matter of hours, especially if they’re as close to the Sun as this one is, so keep checking back for updates.

 

Can I take a picture of it?

You can try! If you have a digital camera, put it on a tripod or fencepost or something sturdy and point it towards the comet. Set the camera for Manual exposure, and select an exposure time of between 2 and 10 seconds. (Check your camera’s manual for how to do this.) Take a picture and see what it looks like, then take another one with a longer exposure time and see what it looks like. Trial and error will give you a decent chance of recording this celestial interloper. Try zooming in (which usually requires a longer exposure time) and even holding the camera up to your binocular or telescope eyepiece if you have one. Today’s cameras can do some amazing things, so try yours and see what happens.

 

So what?

Bright comets are beautiful and rare sights. Scientifically they offer a glimpse into the early days of our solar system. They’re basically left-over chunks of material that didn’t get swept up into one of the planets of our solar system, kept in a deep freeze for the last few billion years or so. Comets are responsible for most of the water on our planet, by impacting the Earth during the early days of its formation. And, they’re just cool!

 

Finally, another comet, Comet ISON, will appear in the sky later this year, and could be even bigger and brighter, so this is a good warm-up for observers.

We’d love to see your pictures of this comet. Send them to SkyInfo@ManitobaMuseum.ca and we’ll post the best ones on our website.

Scott Young

Scott Young

Planetarium Astronomer

Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Manitoba Stories: In the Sky

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The clam that sank a thousand ships 

Posted on by Randall Mooi

Unless you happen to be chowing down on some steamed clams at the time, a discussion of important influences on human history is unlikely to include a clam as part of the conversation. But the eating habits of one small group of highly evolved clams has altered the travel plans of Christopher Columbus and Sir Francis Drake, changed the outcome of naval battles, and has inspired folklore and poetry. 

Clams are members of the Bivalvia, a relatively diverse subgroup of molluscs that includes about 10,000 living species of oysters, mussels, scallops and any of the typical “seashells” we are used to finding washed up on beaches, whether on fresh- or saltwater. Other molluscs include snails, slugs, squids, and octopus. Bivalves are creatures that have two roughly symmetrical hinged shells (hence Bivalvia from the Latin bi = two, and valva = leaf of a folding door) that usually can enclose the entire animal for protection. Most are filter-feeders, meaning they take in great quantities of water through one siphon, pump it through the gills that strain out small food particles, and then send it out a second siphon. 

Three illustrations of shipworm getting progressively close-up on the front-end.

Old woodcut illustrations of “shipworm” showing the worm-shaped body (B) on the left along with the shell valves at the front (S) and the siphons for incoming and outgoing water to the gills for breathing (IO). The middle figure is a close up of the front part of the animal and the shell valves (S) and on the right is the shell itself, showing its modification into a grinding surface. From Popular Science Monthly, August 1878. 

But bivalves have been around a very long time, over 500 million years, and over that time some strange exceptions to the usual life history have evolved. The two valves of its shell have been modified from protective devices into two small, but extremely effective grinding surfaces at one end that are used to bore into any piece of wood encountered in the ocean. The clam starts out as a small juvenile that settles on a wood surface. As the new small clam bores into its new home, the wood is digested with the help of symbiotic algae that live on its gills. As the hole gets deeper, the animal’s body elongates to maintain a connection to the surface, and the burrow is buttressed with a shell-like lining. 

An illustration demonstrating the growth stages of shipworm, starting from a small hole and growing into a long, curved tube through the wood. As the worm growing further into the wood, two small siphons at the back end remain at the surface of the wood.

The settling of a young Teredo onto a piece of wood and its gradual growth. The shell halves grind up the wood. Note that the siphons remain at the wood surface to bring clean seawater to the animal. Figure from Flingeflung, German language Wikipedia. 

As the common name “shipworm” suggests, and is emphasized by its scientific name Teredo navalis, this species has a long history of damaging ships. Some have suggested that the anxiety of Christopher Columbus’ crew to head west from Europe was not fear of the unknown, but fear of shipworm damage on a long journey, and for good reason. The fourth voyage of Columbus to the Americas in 1502 came to a disastrous end when all his ships sank due to damage resulting from Teredo. His ships were, “… rotten, worm-eaten … more riddled with holes than a honeycomb… With three pumps, pots and kettles, and with all hands working, they could not keep down the water which came into the ship, and there was no other remedy for the havoc which the worm had wrought… my ship was sinking under me…”  (from a letter describing the voyage). Columbus was forced by these small clams to land on Jamaica. He and his crews were marooned for a year before being rescued. 

Left, a painting of Christopher Columbus, seated, wearing dark robes and hat. Right, a painting of Sir. Francis Drake, standing near a table with a globe on it with one hand on his hip. Wearing dark robes and an frilled ruff.

The fourth voyage of Christopher Columbus (left) to the Americas in 1502 came to a disastrous end when all his ships sank because of damage from these clams. In 1579, Sir Francis Drake (right), the famous English pirate/explorer/Vice Admiral spent a month on the Californian coast repairing the Golden Hind, which had been eaten by shipworms. 

In 1579, Sir Francis Drake spent over a month on the Californian coast repairing the Golden Hind, which had been damaged by shipworms. And there are claims that shipworm appetites might have been a factor in the English defeat (more like repulsion) of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The Spanish had remained docked in marine waters off Portugal for several months before engaging the English, providing plenty of time for infiltration of ship’s timbers by the clam that would have weakened and slowed the vessels. 

Three paintings, side-by-side. Left, a formal painting of King Philip II of Spain. Centre, a painting of the panish Armada at sea. Right, a formal painting of Queen Elizabeth I.

Perhaps shipworm appetites helped the English defeat the clam-weakened ships of the Spanish Armada in 1588! King Philip II of Spain (left), was forced to keep his Armada at sea several months (centre) before engaging the navy of Queen Elizabeth I of England (right). 

Even the eventual  addition of copper cladding to naval vessels was not certain protection from the “worm”, as this famous poem by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) attests: 

… The vessel, though her masts be firm, 

Beneath her copper bears a worm … 

Far from New England’s blustering shore, 

New England’s worm her hulk shall bore, 

And sink her in the Indian seas … 

-(excerpted from “Though all the Fates” 1849) 

It has been estimated that ship timbers needed replacement every eight years on average, largely due to damage from Teredo wood-boring. At this rate, it is clear that this marine clam has had a tremendous impact on terrestrial ecology, too – huge tracts of coastal forests around the world have been cut down to replace damaged hulls of the ships of all the colonial powers as they travelled the seas. And all that travel introduced these clams all over the world as affected ships brought the animals with them. For this reason, scientists are uncertain of the original distribution and habitat of “shipworms.” 

Photograph of a portion of wood that has had grooves and holes eaten into it by shipworms.

A small portion of wood from the Philippines showing the damage that occurs from the activities of Teredo, a woodboring clam that can digest wood with the help of symbiotic bacteria (MM 2.4-1062). Scale bar is 5 cm. 

Of course, Teredo clams do not only target vessels, but any wooden structure in the sea. In 1731, parts of Holland were flooded because wooden dikes were eaten and weakened by “shipworm,” prompting replacement by costly imported stone. And perhaps Teredo was the cause of (or inspiration for) the famous hole plugged by the little Dutch boy’s finger.  Damage to piers and moorings amounts to tens of millions of dollars per year. An infestation in San Francisco Bay between 1919 and 1921 caused over $2 billion of damage in today’s dollars, and repairing such damage is a considerable cost to this day. 

Photograph of a section of fossil wood with bore lines and remnants of holes across the surface.

Woodboring clams have been around for awhile. This is fossil wood from Souris, Manitoba showing the bore holes of Teredo or a similar species from the Cretaceous Period, about 65 million years old (MM I-2139). Because all existing species require salt water, this suggests that the wood had been floating in an ocean environment before it became fossilized. Scale bar is 3 cm. 

The influence that a tiny bivalve mollusc can have on human history and economic activity is truly astounding. And this is only one of many examples from molluscs, a wonderfully diverse group of animals that is usually well outside our consciousness. Given how some have altered history, perhaps we should give these animals more of the attention they deserve. 

Dr. Randy Mooi

Dr. Randy Mooi

Curator of Zoology

Dr. Mooi received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Toronto working on the evolutionary history of coral reef fishes. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Fishes of the Smithsonian Institution…
Meet Dr. Randy Mooi

A Glass Cane and a Search for Family

Posted on by Roland Sawatzky
Posted on: Tuesday March 5, 2013

This last weekend The Manitoba Museum had a very special guest. Joseph Winzoski arrived on Saturday afternoon with family and friends to have a look at a special artifact his grandfather had made back in about 1910. Joseph’s grandfather, Juszef Wiazowski, was a master glass blower at the Manitoba Glass Works in Beausejour, and created this glass cane there. Referred to sometimes as “whimsies”, these kinds of decorative pieces could be made as gifts or for sale. Juszef was recruited in Poland by Josef Albert Keilbach to help start up the factory work in 1906.

Two individuals sitting next to each other in conversation in the Parklands Gallery of the Manitoba Museum.

Joseph Winzoski with curator Roland Sawatzky in the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery.

An illuminated display case with a shalf of glass bottles and a number of glass canes suspended above.

Glass cane (top) believed to have been made by Jozef Winzoski, ca. 1910. On display in the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery.

Joseph Winsozki’s granddaughter has provided the museum with some of her detailed research of the family history:

“Juszef Wiazowski was a part owner of a Glass Company in Poland. This…was discovered in the Archives of Poland by a distant cousin in 2012.”

“It is my belief that [Josef] Albert Keilbach visited with Mr. Juszef Wiazowski at his glass manufacturing plant in Lodz, Poland and recruited him as a partner in the Manitoba Glassworks.”

Juszef’s son Adam was also a glass blower at the factory, and his son Joseph, our visitor, was born in 1916. Joseph never really knew his father. Both of Joseph’s parents died of the Spanish Flu, a world-wide epidemic, in 1918, and around the same time his grandfather Juszef was kicked by a horse and killed. Joseph had a difficult childhood: he and his siblings were forced by their step-family to work on farms all over Manitoba. Joseph later served in the Netherlands, fighting in the Liberation of Arnhem, and was later a guard for the war criminal Kurt Meyer in Aurich, Germany. As an orphan, Joseph was always interested in reconnecting to his father’s family history, and this glass cane, and the Winzoski’s of Beausejour, were a big part of that story. Thanks for the visit, Joe.

Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Curator of History

Roland Sawatzky joined The Manitoba Museum in 2011. He received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Winnipeg, M.A. in Anthropology from the University of South Carolina, and Ph.D. in Archaeology…
Meet Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Museum Stories: History

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From Acquisition to Exhibit – One Artifact’s Journey

Posted on by Collections & Conservation
Posted on: Friday March 1, 2013

By Kathy Nanowin, past Manager of Conservation

 

When the Museum receives an artifact or specimen, very often the donor asks or expects that the new acquisition will be put immediately on display. This, more than 90% of the time, is NOT the case. The reasons are various, but mostly it comes down to scarce resources – of staff, time, and money. It takes resources to process the new donation; it takes resources to prepare it for exhibit; it takes resources to plan and develop the exhibit. Having said all that, here is the tale of one object which went from initial acquisition to permanent display in less than a year.

The artifact is a horse watering trough, which would have been a common sight in public spaces up until just over a century ago. TMM did not have anything like this in its collection, so it was approved for acquisition. Normally, once the collections management process is followed, it ends with the artifact or specimen being found a home in one of our storage areas; however, in this case, Curator of History Roland Sawatzky thought that there was an empty area in the Urban Gallery where the horse trough would naturally fit.

We have a formal Exhibit Procedure at the museum, so Roland followed this while the artifact was proceeding to be accessioned, catalogued, photographed, and condition reported. Ultimately, the idea was approved for this unique object to take its place in TMM’s permanent galleries.

The horse watering trough is made of painted steel. It is quite stable, but did need some conservation treatment – a good cleaning – before it was at its best to be displayed.

After the conservation treatment and documentation, the watering trough was brought down to the Urban Gallery on a Monday when we’re closed to the public, and placed in position against the wall between the Proscenium Theatre and Amy Galbraith’s Dress Shop. It took several sets of strong arms and legs to lift and lower it into position.

An individual wearing a white lab coat, face mask, and blue gloves uses a stiff brush to clean an upside-down water trough upturned on clear plastic.

Conservator Lisa May cleans trough with a wire brush.

Five individuals work together to move a large solid water trough in a museum gallery.

The heavy trough was lifted off a dolly and lowered into place

A water trough with a fountain-like piece in the centre, placed against a brick wall near a sign showing a horse drinking from a similar shaped trough, and an arrow pointing towards this one.

The horse watering trough in the gallery.

Again, I have to emphasize that this is a rare case, when a newly acquired object goes on long-term display shortly after it arrives at The Manitoba Museum (yes, eleven months is relatively short in the museum world). In this instance, the artifact fills a gap in the gallery space, and helps tell a story we weren’t telling before – a reminder that horses used to be ubiquitous in the city, before motorized vehicles became common. The next time you visit the Museum, be sure to check it out!

Museum Stories: Collections & Conservation

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Textiles from Slovakia

Posted on by Roland Sawatzky
Posted on: Wednesday February 20, 2013

Slovakian textiles recently donated to The Manitoba Museum help tell the story of one family’s immigration to Manitoba in the late 1940s. These textiles were made in the tiny village of Lentvora, in a small valley in central Slovakia. The Karman family grew their own flax, which was then beaten, spun, dyed, and finally woven into these textile patterns. The donor of the textiles, Anne Anderson, was a child in the village in the early 1940s, and remembers her mother Anna and her mothers’ relatives gathering in the kitchen/dining room around a loom to do some weaving.

A cream-coloured textile with dark-coloured detailing.

Anna, the donor’s mother, lived with her grandmother in this house after Anna’s husband Pavel died in 1945. As he lay dying, Pavel asked his cousin Andrew to take care of his daughter. A few years later Anna received word from Andrew, who had immigrated to Canada and lived in Dugald, Manitoba. His young wife had died, and he asked Anna and her daughter to join him on his farm. On the train to Winnipeg in 1948, in possession of these textiles, Anna pointed to a fine house she would like to one day live in. It turns out that was the house of her future husband, Andrew.

 

Image: Slovakian textile, early 1940s. Photograph by Nancy Anderson. Copyright The Manitoba Museum.

Mrs. Anderson held on to these textiles for years before donating them to museum this summer, because they told her mother’s story and they reminded her of life back in Slovakia, where the family worked together to produce what they needed. Now this story will endure at The Manitoba Museum.

Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Curator of History

Roland Sawatzky joined The Manitoba Museum in 2011. He received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Winnipeg, M.A. in Anthropology from the University of South Carolina, and Ph.D. in Archaeology…
Meet Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Museum Stories: History

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Tracking Atlatls in Manitoba

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Monday February 11, 2013

By Kevin Brownlee, past Curator of Archaeology

 

You may ask yourself what is an atlatl? An atlatl is a hunting tool that is in two parts, a dart or very thin spear and a throwing board which is used to propel the dart. In most of North America it was the hunting tool of choice for many thousands of years. Archaeologists often use the size of projectile points as indication of which hunting tool was used. To the best of our knowledge somewhere around 3,000 years before present the bow and arrow was introduced. For about 1,000 years atlatls and bows and arrows were used together. Somewhere around 2,000 years ago the atlatl fell out of favour and the bow and arrow was the main hunting tool. Exceptions to this exist in the arctic and in the southern states and Mesoamerica, where the atlatl continued to be used until European Contact.

An illustration depicting a person through five stages of movement launching a long dart over their head with an atlatl.
A selection of 28 stone spear points of varying colours and sizes on a black background.

The parts of an atlatl are mostly made from perishable materials like wood, hide, and sinew. The most common evidence of the atlatl in Manitoba is midsized stone spear points. While this may be the archaeological interpretation it is almost impossible to know for certain what hunting tool a spear point was attached. Some of these points could have been attached to thrusting spears, or used for other purposes. To positively know what a spear point was attached to you would need excellent preservation of the wood shaft which has not occurred in Manitoba.

 

Image: Stone Spear Points likely used with an atlatl.

Another clue that atlatls were used in Manitoba is the recovery of stone or antler atlatl weights. It appears that these may not have been always used with atlatls since they are uncommon. In the entire 2.5 million artefacts held by The Manitoba Museum only 17 are atlatl weights. In comparison the collection includes over 8,500 projectile points many of which we believe were used with the atlatl.

A long, thin shaft with a handle of leather straps on one end, and a point for a dart to attach for launching at the other end. A flattish stone is attached to the third of the shaft closest to the handle to serve as a counterweight.

Preproduction Atlatl (note stone weight).

Museum Stories: Archaeology

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Rocket lands in Science Gallery

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Monday February 11, 2013

Did you know that one of the most successful small rocket programs in the world is run from right here in Winnipeg? Magellan Aerospace (formerly Bristol Aerospace) builds the Black Brant series of sounding rockets for customers around the world. Payloads launched by Black Brants have been studying the upper atmosphere and near-space environment for over 50 years, and have even been launched from right here in Manitoba (at the Churchill Rocket Range on the northern coast of Manitoba). So it’s no surprise that we’ve always wanted a real rocket for the Science Gallery. Well, now we have one!

Black Brant 5C Rocket in the Science Gallery.

Magellan has loaned the Manitoba Museum a real Black Brant 5C rocket, and it was delivered and installed in the Science Gallery on February 4, 2013. It was a big job getting the rocket into the building, since even disassembled the main motor case wouldn’t fit into the elevator. A team of engineers from Magellan and Museum staff carried it through the parkade and down the stairs to its final resting place. At 9.5-metres (31′) long and nearly 360 kilograms (800 lbs.), this is the single largest artifact in the Science Gallery.

The Black Brant exhibit will officially open this March, with interpretive panels and video footage of the rocket in action. However, you can see the rocket in place now, in the Science Gallery’s space wing next to the Planetarium entrance.

Manitoba Stories: In the Science Gallery

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The Old Museum Lives On

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Thursday January 31, 2013

By Dr. Graham Young, past Curator of Palaeontology & Geology

 

Winnipeg has a long and complicated history of museums featuring natural history collections. Our current museum was a centennial project, opened in 1970, but we are very fortunate that we possess vestiges of those earlier museums, such as minerals from the Carnegie Library collection and mounted animals from some of the early taxidermists. The most visible and best-documented of these “inheritances” are pieces that were exhibited in the old Manitoba Museum, which occupied part of the Winnipeg Civic Auditorium from 1932 until about 1970.

Black and white image of museum display cases showcasing various Indigenous artifacts, including a kayak.

We have a good record of specimens from the old museum because they were numbered, with the numbers listed in a book. We also have good knowledge of how some of these pieces were exhibited thanks to a set of photographs that are digitally filed at the Museum. I am not certain of the dates of these photos; some seem to be from the 1930s when specific exhibits were being installed, while others are from the 1940s or 1950s and show finished exhibits.

The old museum was not large, but it was clearly a pleasant place to spend an afternoon examining cabinets of archaeological artifacts, First Nations clothing, stuffed birds, and fossils. It was very much a “cabinet of curiosities” of the old school, and a good one. Sometimes when I look at these photos I feel a bit sad, and wish that we had been able to keep that old museum as well as building this newer one.

 

Image: Some of the exhibits at the old Manitoba Museum.

In a way, though, we have kept some of that old Museum, in the specimens and artifacts we inherited. It is intriguing that, even after all this time, many of those fossils are still the best examples we have for particular groups, and several of them are in the Earth History Gallery or have been selected for temporary exhibits. The most obvious of these is our mounted Cretaceous plesiosaur, Trinacromerum kirki.

A black and white image of an old museum gallery showing a plesiosaur fossil on display in the front and centre of the image.

The plesiosaur as exhibited in the old Manitoba Museum after 1937.

A full plesiosaur fossil specimen on display in the Manitoba Museum's Earth History Gallery.

The plesiosaur on exhibit last week.

The plesiosaur fossil (and aquatic dinosaur) on display next to the skull of a mosasaur, with pterosaur, long-beaked flying dinosaur ,models suspended above.

The plesiosaur is now exhibited near a mosasaur skull, with beautiful reconstructions of the pterosaur Nyctosaurus suspended above.

This specimen, collected from the Manitoba Escarpment near Treherne in 1932, was a highlight of the old museum. After several re-mountings (including a more accurate replica skull), it remains a focus of our Earth History Gallery today. Skeletons of large extinct creatures never go out of style, but what other fossils can also be traced to the old museum?

The exhibits there featured some beautiful specimens of cephalopods (relatives of octopus and squid) of Ordovician age (about 450 million years old). Ordovician cephalopods are familiar to many Winnipeggers because cut sections through these fossils are often seen in Tyndall Stone walls. Although the cut fossils are common, complete cephalopods are very rarely found nowadays, because the stone is cut directly out of the quarry walls.

In the early years of quarrying, however, the work was done by hand. Three-dimensional fossils were extracted more commonly, and as a result many of our best large Tyndall Stone fossils come from the old collections. This is particularly striking in the Ancient Seas exhibit, where the finest endocerid cephalopod is one that was on exhibit in the old museum, and where some of the other fossils also came from old collections.

Four oblong specimens against a black background.

Ordovician cephalopods in the old museum. We have all of these specimens in our collection; look at the next photo for another image of the largest one!

A conical fossil specimen of a cephalopod on display in the Earth History Gallery.

The endocerid from the old museum is one of the highlighted specimens in the Ancient Seas exhibit.

Other specimens from the old museum make appearances almost every time we do a temporary exhibit in the Discovery Room, featuring  geology or paleontology pieces. Right at the moment, the cephalopod case in our Marvellous Molluscs exhibit includes a pair of fossils from that source. Looking at the old photographs, I was fascinated to discover that two “old friends” that shared a case in the old museum are right beside one another in this current exhibit!

There is something very pleasing about seeing them together like this, 70 years or so after that previous photo. In this way at least, the old museum lives on.

Five cephalopod specimens against a black background.

A group of Tyndall Stone cephalopods in the old museum. Note the specimens at top right and bottom left.

Five cephalopods on display next to small labels in museum exhibit.

Part of the cephalopod exhibit in Marvellous Molluscs, with the two old museum specimens in front.

A glass display case containing a number of sea fossil specimens.

Museum Stories: Palaeontology & Geology

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If People Were Like Pollinators…

Posted on by Diana Bizecki Robson
Posted on: Monday January 28, 2013

I was recently watching the hilarious yet scientifically accurate video on the mating habits of bees done by Isabella Rossellini (see more here). Coincidentally, I’ve also been reading about the quite bizarre and sometimes gruesome life cycles of wild pollinators for my upcoming Prairie Pollination exhibit. Inspired by Isabella, I found myself wondering what it would be like if people were like pollinators…

A hummingbird with a red throat and otherwise grey to black colouring perched on the end of a branch.

If people were like hummingbird pollinators, we would run as fast as a car drives on the highway.  A 150 lb person would drink at least 300 lbs of soda and maple syrup every day (woo hoo sugar rush!).  When the sun set we would enter a state of torpor, collapse on our beds and remain completely immobile until the sun rose and warmed us up.

 

Image: A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Credit: Christian Artuso. Used with permission.

Close-up on a striped insect on the yellow centre of a flower. The many thin petals are a pale purple-white.

As opposed to the frenetic, sugar-fueled travails of the hummingbird, life for a mother bee would be a lot like a horror movie. As you were coming home from the hospital, new baby in hand, a Cuckoo Bee might stalk you. It would break into your house while you were asleep and deposit its baby into your baby’s crib. Then the Cuckoo Bee baby would eat your baby and crawl around your house eating all the baby food that you bought. Horrifying!

 

Image: A Cuckoo Bee on a Fleabane. Credit: Diane Wilson. Used with permission.

A long-bodied insect on a small yellow flower.

While shopping at the grocery store, you might get attacked by an external parasite like a Braconid Wasp (Braconidae). An adult would glue an egg to your back in that little spot that you can’t quite reach. The hatched parasite would survive by sucking your blood but fortunately usually not enough to kill you. Instead you would be weakened and perhaps if you are in poor health and are unable to convince someone to take it off, die an early death. You would also look ridiculous with that thing hanging on your back!

 

Image: Braconid wasp on a Cinquefoil. Credit: Bryan Reynolds. Used with permission.

A very small insect on the yellow centre of a yellow flower.

Alternatively, a Thick-headed Fly (Conipidae) or an Ichneumonid Wasp (Ichneumonidae) might jump on you and quickly inject one of their eggs into your body.  You would go about your business for a while and then get sicker and sicker as the hatched larva began eating you from the inside out until you collapsed and died.  At your funeral the parasitic larvae would burst out of your chest to the horror of all.  Yes, I know that’s the plot of the movie Alien but that is the actual fate of some insects!

 

Image: Thick-headed Fly on a Sunflower. Credit: Bill Dean. Used with permission.

Ironically, some parasites of bees and butterflies are pollinators in their own right so their existence is ultimately beneficial to wildflowers in an ecosystem. In fact, the abundance of some of these parasites is actually an indicator of the overall health of the pollinator population. Essentially, if there aren’t enough bees to support their parasites then the population of bees must really be in trouble. Further, they may actually help improve the resilience and productivity of an ecosystem the way other top carnivores like wolves and sharks do. Unfortunately this topic has been virtually unstudied so we really don’t understand the true impact of pollinator parasites on ecosystem functioning. So don’t hate parasites because they kill – they’re just part of the sometimes morbid circle of life that we humans seldom see.

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Curator of Botany

Dr. Bizecki Robson obtained a Master’s Degree in Plant Ecology at the University of Saskatchewan studying rare plants of the mixed grass prairies. After working as an environmental consultant and sessional lecturer…
Meet Dr. Bizecki Robson

Museum Stories: Botany

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Peguis Pipe visits Peguis First Nation

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Thursday January 17, 2013

By Maureen Matthews, past Curator of Anthropology

 

On Saturday, December 1st, 2012, the Peguis First Nation hosted a Hunters’ and Gatherers’ Feast in honour of high school students who had successfully completed a course in bush skills. They were also honouring Chief Glenn Hudson and celebrating the inauguration of a new beaded otter fur Chief’s hat made by women in the community. There were about 250 people in the community hall for the event, which featured the Loud Eagle Drum Group and numerous dancers. For the first time in many years, an old friend returned to the community; a black pipestone horse’s head pipe bowl which once belonged to the founder of the First Nation, Chief Peguis (1774-1864), and is now in the keeping of The Manitoba Museum.

Chief Peguis’ pipe bowl has been in the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) Collection for more than 80 years and has been at The Manitoba Museum since the HBC Gallery opened in 2000. According to available records, the pipe was purchased from Charles Prince of St. Peter’s, a great-grandson of Chief Peguis, by William Flett, on behalf of the Hudson’s Bay Company. It was last on public display in 1936 at the Leipzig Fair in Germany.

Last summer the Museum, with community partners, set up a special display in honour of the 200th anniversary of the Selkirk Settlement and, in the course of identifying appropriate artifacts, we came upon Peguis’ pipe. It was not part of the display because pipes like this have an important Anishinaabe ceremonial role. ‘Pipes, opwaaganag’ are grammatically animate. They are spoken to as if they were persons and are considered ‘wiikaanag, ritual brothers’ by those with whom they share ceremonies. We eventually got in touch with Chief Glenn Hudson to ask what we could do to make the pipe known to the community. This invitation to the Hunters’ and Gatherers’ Feast is the result and we are honoured to have been invited.

As Curator of Ethnology, it was my pleasure to take the pipe to the community for the day. The video attached shows the ceremonial entrance of the pipe, a welcome song played by the Loud Eagle Drum Group in honour of the pipe and community members lined up to view the pipe. The feast, which featured wild foods including elk, moose, deer, rabbit, goose, and wild rice, was fabulous. Thank you all.

 

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Museum Stories: Anthropology

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