This National Wildlife Photo Contest entry was taken by Anne Zeneski, who built this pond in her backyard in North Carolina. The pond attracts frogs and other wild creatures.

Ant farmers: Humans first began cultivating crops about 10,000 years ago, but ants got into the program long before that: Using genetic studies, scientists determined a few years ago that a pioneering ant species began growing its own food about 50 million years past. The most highly developed insect agriculturalist today is the leaf-cutter ant, which dates back about 10 million years and includes nearly 50 species native to South and Central America and to the southern United States. Here’s how these insects, which live in underground nests that can cover 6,500 square feet and house 8 million residents, go about gardening: Specialized workers called mediae forage around their nest for plant material, cutting off pieces of leaf—they can strip clean a citrus tree in a single day. They lug the plant material to the nest and hand it off to minims, specialized workers that fragment the leaf pieces into a sort of mulch and feed it to fungi being cultivated in the nest. The queen, which is the only member of the ant colony that lays eggs, lives in the fungus garden. There her eggs hatch, and the larvae feed on the convenient food source (adults feed on leaf sap). These ants and their relatives represent the world’s first known farmers.

Termites: Some termite species, which live in colonial nests like those of ants, also grow fungus gardens. The insects build spongy “combs,” which may include nutritious termite feces as an ingredient, and grow fungi on the combs. The termites feed on the fungi, which benefit from the protection of the insects and the habitat they provide.

Ambrosia beetles: These weevil relatives bore into and carve tunnels in dead or dying trees. They carry certain fungi in special receptacles on their bodies and deposit fungus spores in the tunnels, where the fungi grow, drawing nutrients from the wood. Rather than eat wood themselves, the beetles and their larvae feed on parts of the fungi. When larval beetles become adults, they collect fungus spores and fly off to bore into new trees and restart the process. About 3,000 beetle species use this strategy.

Bowerbirds: Lest you think that wildlife gardeners are all about fungus and insects, let’s take a look at the spotted bowerbird, a species studied in Queensland, Australia, where recent research discovered that the birds engage in gardening, of a sort. Male spotted bowerbirds build elaborate nests, or bowers, from twigs and decorate them with various objects to attract females. One decorative object much loved by females, and hence much sought by males, is the yellow-green, often purple-tinged berry of the potato bush—in fact, more berries on the bower means better mating success for the male. Males don’t generally build bowers in areas where the berries grow in abundance, but by the time a bower is a year old, it usually has a few dozen potato bushes growing nearby, giving the male more opportunity to decorate with more berries. The males throw shriveled berries outside the bower, affecting the distribution of the potato bush. Not precisely agriculture as ants and humans may know it, but still a form of opportunistic gardening. It also is the first known example of the cultivation of a nonfood plant by a nonhuman species.

Create a haven for birds and other critters in your own backyard and have it designated as an official Certified Wildlife Habitat site. Certify in the month of May and we’ll plant a tree in your honor!>>

Children enjoy outdoor time in Florida in this donated image by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Wiliam Chitty.

The Restorative Power of Nature

In its efforts to protect nature, the Federation is helping to preserve one of the key means for reducing stress: getting outdoors among trees and birds, wind and sunshine.

People have known intuitively for many years about the restorative power of nature. Henry David Thoreau, the Concord, Massachusetts, naturalist, observed in the middle of the 19th century, “An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”

And toward the end of the century, John Muir, who championed Yosemite as a national park, told us, “Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own.”

Current views on nature’s role in reducing stress support what Thoreau and Muir preached. Increasingly, evidence shows that spending time in nature helps with healing, recovery, emotional well being and social life. Time spent outside can even improve your child’s sleeping habits.

In hospital studies, Texas A&M University psychologist Roger Ulrich found that surgical patients randomly assigned to a room with a window view of trees not only required less pain medication, but also healed faster and were discharged more quickly than if they had no window or had a view of a brick wall.

Other research found that tapping into the power of nature also may boost a company’s bottom line: Michigan office and factory workers were both happier with their work environment and 20 percent more productive after their firm moved into a building that had skylights and windows that opened onto views of restored prairie with meandering footpaths and wetlands rather than sterile, office park surroundings.

Getting Into Nature

Even though research supports the significant role that nature plays in our physical and emotional health, people are spending less and less time outdoors. The National Park Service recently found that the Millennial Generation, born since 2000, is much less likely than previous generations to visit and support national parks.

This fact should generate a bit of stress among wildlife enthusiasts, because the future for nature depends on a strong constituency demanding protection for wild places. Getting outdoors creates a bond between nature and people and builds strong support for wildlife and habitat protection. A study in the 1990s found that almost 100 percent of avid conservationists had spent time in nature as children with an older person, usually a relative.

When you get outside, and get your children outside, you are returning to nature the benefits that it gives you. NWF offers a wide variety of information on outdoor activities, including volunteer projects that let you help protect wild places at the same time that you’re letting nature protect you. That’s a pretty good bargain for National Stress Awareness Month.

When thinking about outdoor activities with your family, don’t forget to register for NWF’s June 23 Great American Backyard Campout, a chance to join thousands of other Americans sleeping under the stars.

Gray squirrels like this watchful one sometimes pretend to bury acorns several times before really burying them, a trick designed to fool other squirrels that might pilfer stored food.

How Fauna Fake It

1. When a troop of tufted capuchin monkeys visited feeding platforms set up in an Argentine national park by biologists studying the animals, the lower-ranking monkeys sometimes failed to get access to the food. To even the score, a lower-echelon individual would scream alarm calls used to warn of predators, sending the upper classes running off and leaving the food to the underling.
2. If a female kopi antelope in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve attempts to stray from her herd while in breeding condition, the dominant male will sometimes look in the direction the female is traveling and falsely issue an alarm call that warns of lions in the vicinity, though there are no lions nearby. Straying females usually heed the deception and retreat back into the herd—why take chances?
3. The alligator snapping turtle , the largest U.S. turtle species, has an appendage on its tongue that looks like a worm. It wiggles this lure, with jaws held open, to attract fish into its mouth. Then—chomp—the turtle gives new meaning to the phrase snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
4. The non-venomous scarlet king snake is banded in red, yellow and black, making it look very much like the highly venomous coral snake. This ploy can keep enemies away from the king snake. How do you tell the two species apart? In the king snake, red and black bands usually abut, while in the coral snake red and yellow bands usually touch, hence the saying, Red against black is a friend of Jack, red against yellow will kill a fellow. Note the emphasis on usually. If you ever encounter a red-, yellow- and black-banded snake, don’t bet your life on the old saw.
5. When approached at their nests by predators, killdeer—tawny and white birds with black markings often found around wetlands—will make their characteristic kill deer, kill deer cry and thrash around on the ground, dragging one wing as if it’s broken. As it enacts this ruse, the bird will move farther from the nest, always out of the predator’s reach, until the nest is distant enough that the bird abruptly takes wing, leaving the predator outfoxed. Does the bird knowingly engage in this deception? Probably not. One hypothesis is that the bird is trapped between two conflicting urges—the drive to stay at the nest and the drive to flee–so it engages in this odd halfway measure that looks like a bird in trouble.
6. Opossums are well known for playing possum, keeling over when threatened and lying as if dead. Apparently this behavior helps them escape harm in some situations. Like the killdeer, the possum may not play dead intentionally; biologists think it just passes out from stress. During this condition, the marsupial’s lips draw back, baring the small, sharp teeth. Foam can form around the mouth, and a secretion from the anal glands may emit a foul smell that indicates: I’m dead. Recovering from this convincingly moribund trance may take up to 4 hours.
7. Another animal that escapes danger by playing dead is the hognose snake, a smallish, mottled reptile that when handled or threatened often will flip on its back and lie dead still, with mouth gaping and tongue hanging out. If turned over, it will flip again on to its back, determined to show it has gone belly up, both literally and figuratively.
8. Gray squirrels bury acorns gathered in autumn for use later in winter. To keep other squirrels from pilfering a buried nut, a squirrel sometimes pretends to bury a nut several times before actually burying it.
9. The northern pygmy-owl, which lives in the western United States and southwestern Canada, bears spots on the back of its head that look like eyes. One of the world’s tiniest owls, the pygmy-owl hunts songbirds by day and often is mobbed from behind by its prey. The eyespots may give songbirds the impression they are being watched and thus protect the owl from whacks on the back of the head.
10.   Many butterfly and moth species bear spots on their wings that look like eyes, just as many fish species bear eyespots on their fins. These false eyes may give a predator a sense that it has already been seen, so that a chase is a losing proposition, or may simply startle it into retreating.

Photos for this blog were donated by competitors in the annual National Wildlife Photo Contest. See more photos or sign up for the 42nd annual National Wildlife Photo Contest. In addition to cash awards, winning photos appear in National Wildlife magazine and on the NWF website.

NWF.org offers you more information about feathered friends, unfeathered friends and wildlife in general.

Camping in a pool of light on a dark night creates a close and cozy feel. Photo donated by National Wildlife Photo Contest participant Derek Gulden.

But to be forewarned is to be forearmed, if by armed you mean having a rain suit at hand during a weekend that may feature a cloud burst. Fortunately, for those who travel beyond reach of weather reports, nature provides a lot of clues about oncoming storms and sunshine .

Even close to home, these clues can be helpful. Are you taking part in NWF’s 8th annual Great American Backyard Campout on June 23? Then you can use these 12 tidbits that day to test your kids’ weather-reading ability, making a game out of their skill while at the same time bringing them closer to nature:

1. Red sky: If the sky is red at night, the next day will likely be clear; if red in the morning, expect rain by the end of the day; remember, “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky in morning, sailor take warning.”
2. Gray morning: A gray dawn with foggy valleys indicates—surprise!—a clear day ahead.
3. Listen to frogs: Several hours before a storm hits, frogs increase their calling, apparently because the higher pre-storm humidity keeps their skin moist, allowing them to stay out of water longer.
4. Summer halos: a hazy ring around the sun or moon in summer is a reliable sign that the weather pattern is in for a change, usually bringing rain.
5. Dewy dawn: heavy morning or late-evening dew (or frost in cold months) may indicate 12 hours of continued good weather.
6. Hair: the hair on your head will contract when damp and relax when dry, so straighter hair means dry weather, wavier or curlier means wet.
7. Animals: cattle gather in lower elevations and away from exposed hills when the weather is about to change for the worse; in mountainous areas, deer, wild sheep and elk move from mountainsides to sheltered valleys as storms approach and go back up when the blow is over.
8. Wind direction: winds from the south tend to bring rain (old adage: “Wind from the south brings rain in its mouth”), while winds from the north are associated with clear weather. On a similar note, if the wind has been blowing for the past few hours, rushing clouds along, and then suddenly dies, you are in for a major storm.
9. Your nose: if you live on the Great Plains you may smell approaching rain—the lower pressure and higher humidity that come with rain cause the ground to emit a rich, sweet odor similar to that of fresh-mown hay.
10. Campfire smoke: if smoke hangs low to the ground and drifts off into surrounding tree branches, rain is possible; if the smoke rises in a straight, vertical column, anticipate fair weather.
11. Crickets: If you count the number of times a cricket chirps in 14 seconds, then add 40, you can get a close estimate of the air temperature in Fahrenheit; for example, 25 chirps in 14 seconds plus 40 equals 65 degrees F (note: air temperature on the ground where  crickets hang out may be several degrees cooler than the air around your head).
12. Coffee: stir strongly brewed coffee (no instant) in a mug with vertical sides to make bubbles form—if the bubbles scatter and then gather in the center, expect fair weather; if they cling to the sides of the cup, rain is possible.

Sign Up for the Great American Backyard Campout

On June 23rd , NWF will hold its 8th annual Great American Backyard Campout, in which families across the nation—from beginners to seasoned outdoor enthusiasts—pitch tents and spend the night outdoors. Last year, about 175,000 people joined in, more than 60 percent of them setting up camp in a backyard.

The campout is a lot of fun for kids, but it’s also more than that. In recent years, the experience of childhood has moved indoors—today, 25 percent of kids play outside daily, as opposed to 75 percent a generation ago—taking a toll on children. By participating in the Great American Backyard Campout, your children will explore the outdoors and put nature back into childhood. This activity can yield significant results: A study in the 1990s found that people who grew up to be conservationists almost invariably had someone in their lives who introduced them to nature as a child.

The Great American Backyard Campout: Sign up.

This blog was adapted from Basic Illustrated Weather Forecasting by Michael Hodgson. Copyright © 2008 by Michael Hodgson. Used by permission of FalconGuides, a division of Globe Pequot Press.

Photos for this blog were donated by competitors in the annual National Wildlife Photo Contest. See more photos or sign up for the 42nd annual National Wildlife Photo Contest. In addition to cash awards, winning photos appear in National Wildlife magazine and on the NWF website.

Sunrise will arrive an hour later after clocks spring forward for Daylight Savings Time on March 11. Here the sun comes up over the beach at Wildwood, New Jersey, in a National Wildlife Photo Contest entry from Daniel Gillespie.

Although Daylight Savings Time (DST) is all about time, it actually has a pretty short history. Here are four things you may not know about time shifting:

1. DST was first proposed by George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist (student of insects) who wanted more evening daylight for collecting bugs after work. He gave a paper on the subject to the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1895, urging a two-hour time shift, but the time change didn’t happen.
2. The first DST was initiated by Germany and its allies during World War I to move sunset later into the day and thus put bedtime and sunset closer today, which was expected to save coal used for heating. The United States first used DST in 1918, also to save fuel during the war, and revived it in 1942 to help save energy during World War II.
3. In the United States, from 1945 to 1966 state and local governments set the DST schedule. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, making DST begin nationally on the last Sunday in April and end the last Sunday in October; but any area of the nation could opt out by passing a local ordinance. The time for starting and ending DST has varied over the years.
4. A 1970s study concluded that DST cuts electricity usage about 1 percent for each day it is in effect, the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil at that time. A 2008 report to Congress concluded that DST cuts back electricity use 0.5 percent nationally—enough electricity to power 100,000 households for a year. But hold on—a 2007 study in California found that DST there reduced energy use only 0.2 percent, which was within the statistical margin of error (1.5 percent). An Indiana study in 2006 concluded that statewide DST caused a 1 percent rise in residential electricity use and cost the state $9 million. So does DST save energy? The jury is still out.

Sign up for National Wildlife Federation’s New Paperless Donation

Just as Daylight Savings Time got its start as a means to conserve energy, you can help National Wildlife Federation and the environment by helping us conserve paper.

Enroll in our Green Leader program by pledging a monthly electronic donation, and you’ll receive no more paper mail from NWF >>

The photos accompanying this blog were donated by participants in the annual National Wildlife Photo Contest. See more photos or sign up for the 42nd Annual National Wildlife Photo Contest.

And wouldn’t you know that U.S. presidential election cycles pop up during Leap Years, giving us an extra day of campaigning and attack ads, especially onerous because in politician years, a day is like 12 months.

But it can’t be helped. The need for Leap Year is an excellent example of how the natural world just won’t fall neatly in line with human plans, schemes and machinations. The Earth circles the sun at the rate of about 365.242199 days—just roughly speaking, you see—which means our 365-day calendars fall six hours behind each year. In a century, the calendar would be off by 24 days—nearly a month. So every four years we add the otherwise elusive February 29th to the calendar, allowing our appointments to catch up with the orbiting speed of the planet, which, by the way, is more or less 66,486.717569 miles per hour.

Where’d Leap Year Come From?

The sun sets behind trees at Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp in a photo entered by Jack T. Sandow in the NWF Annual Photo Contest. Variations in the Earth's orbit around the sun make Leap Years a chronological necessity.

Now the injection of a Leap Day occurs in every year evenly divisible by 4, unless the year also can be evenly divided by 100, in which case it’s not a Leap Year, unless it also can be evenly divided by 400, in which case it is a Leap Year. If this sounds confusing, well, you can perhaps forgive Gaius for his oversight, which must not have been made easier by the use of Roman numerals.

Luck of the 29th

Of course, a date as wayward in its recurrence as February 29th is bound to have some myth attached to it, the human mind being as superstitious as it is. In Scotland, being born on Leap Day is considered unlucky. In Greece, marrying during a Leap Year is a bad sign, and marrying on Leap Day is even worse (though it would simplify anniversary celebrations). In some European nations, Leap Day is a sort of Sadie Hawkins event in which women propose to men. This day is also called Bachelors’ Day in some nations where, according to tradition, if the man turns down the woman, he must give her gifts (you can see the potential for abuse of this system). Among the upper classes in some countries, the demurring man was supposed to give the woman a dozen gloves, which she could wear to conceal her lack of a wedding ring.

Planetary Changes

The vagaries of the Earth’s rush around the sun isn’t the only factor that can remind us that what happens in space doesn’t stay in space. For example, the spin of the Earth on its axis, currently at a speed of about 1,070 miles per hour at the Equator, is slowing down. During the age of dinosaurs, a day was probably around 23 hours long. In the Devonian period, some 370 million years ago—long before dinosaurs—the day was around 22 hours long. So when someone complains, “There are only so many hours in the day,” you may smugly reply, “It could be worse.”

Other factors affect the measuring of time. Last November, scientists who study this sort of thing discovered that the Earth’s axial spin actually sped up after the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, a powerful stream of ocean water, slowed down. Each day from roughly November 8 to the 20 was about 0.1 millisecond shorter than usual. Before the planet resumed normal speed, we lost a good 1.2 milliseconds, which can ruin a two-week vacation. Such shifts may become more common as climate changes in the wake of global warming, because some scientists suspect that warming trends caused the alterations in the sea current’s velocity.

Record Leap Day Births

A Norwegian family holds the world’s record for the official number of children born within a family on Leap Day—Mrs. Karin Henriksen, from the town of Andenes, gave birth to three children on consecutive Leap Days—1960, 1964 and 1968.

Were you born on Leap Day?  If so, perhaps you can tell us in the comment section how, or when, you celebrate your birthday anniversary.

To see more photos like those in this blog, or to enter the 42nd Annual NWF Photo Contest, visit the NWF Photo Contest.

Much of the information in this blog comes from the Time and Date website,  which has tons of data on, well, time and dates.

National Wildlife magazine online offers you more information on animals and birds.

Dressing Up

Antlers in buck deer serve as a sign of the male, warning off rivals and attracting potential mates. This image from the annual NWF National Wildlife Photo Contest was donated to NWF by Jack T. Sandow, Jr.

Consider the antlers of buck deer or bull elk or the mating plumage of male songbirds, ducks and peafowl. All of these points are important to attracting a mate, plus they can scare off competitors. Like a pricey power suit, bright plumage, antlers, bright spots on a bird’s bill or a lizard’s throat, say to potential mates, “Look at me and be awed. I’m strong and healthy enough to put energy into growing these doodads.  I’m powerful and skilled.”

More generally, species-specific colors and appendages—a robin’s red breast, or a male mountain gorilla’s silver back—say, “Make no mistake about it, I’m a member of such and such gender, and I’m a dazzling example of our species, so what’s not to like?”

Individual members of many animal species learn from infancy that appearance is important. In fact, through a process called imprinting, individuals come to identify with the look of the creatures that raise them, which usually means their parents and ensures that they seek mates and companions from their own species. But you can take a newborn animal and mess with its head: Austrian zoologist Konrad Lorenz once raised a rook (a European member of the crow family) so that it became imprinted on him; as an adult the rook, interested in mating, tried to stuff worms into Lorenz’s ears as part of a (misdirected) courtship feeding ritual.

Bearing Gifts

Valentine’s Day is a prime gift-giving holiday, part merchandizing ploy and part courtship. But giving gifts to prospective or actual mates is not uniquely human.

Bonobo (a.k.a. pygmy chimpanzee) males sometimes offer fruit to females with which they want to mate. Many male spiders present dead insects to prospective mates, in part to keep the indiscriminately predatory females from eating the suitors. In some spider species, males wrap an insect gift in silk webbing so the female will be preoccupied with unwrapping it, further enhancing the males’ odds of escaping the mating process alive. (The males of at least one spider species give females just a wad of empty silk—ladies beware).

Some male birds are champion gift givers, offering complete nests to females. The bowerbird of Australia and New Guinea is a famed example, the male building elaborate nests decorated with small, often shiny objects that attract female attention. As with gaudy plumage, the nest tells females, “Hey, I’m a male in excellent physical condition, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to gather all these bits of bone, shell, fruit et cetera so I can offer you this delightful house with a rain-forest view.”

Among red-winged blackbirds, the males that lay claim to the best nesting sites get females first. In European storks, the legendary bearers of babies, the nest is a really potent gift. The birds mate for life, but their fidelity is to the nest, not the mate. Male and female return yearly to the same nest—not to each other—which has the effect of making them mates for life.

May I Have This Dance?

Birds, like this peacock, commonly use their feathers for challenging rivals and attracting mates, as shown in this image by Virginia Smith, entered in the NWF annual National Wildlife Photo Contest.

An obvious case is the peacock, with its outspread tail, which it will shake and rattle to attract females. Wild turkeys engage in the same ritual, with tom (male) turkeys spreading their brown tails like Puritan versions of peacocks. The expansion of body feathers as well as tail feathers makes males look larger and more fit, a display designed not only to attract females but to warn away other males.

Among the bird world’s real hoofers are the sage grouse and prairie chickens that gather on special dancing areas—flat, open grounds called leks—where they hop and stomp in a ritualized “dance” that attracts females. (Given that birds apparently descended from two-legged dinosaurs, one can only wonder if perhaps, millions of years ago, courting T. rexes capered about in thunderous, earth-shaking mating dances; probably not, but what an image!) In a real case of sharing, some American Indian peoples incorporated movements from prairie chicken mating dances into their own tribal steps.

Birds use other displays as well, such as eagles engaging in intricate mating flights, or male woodcocks spiraling into springtime skies as they issue mating calls. All show that the individual participants are fit, strong, agile—in all, a good potential mate.

Valentine’s Day: Wild about Red

A male cardinal in VA, an image entered in the NWF National Wildlife Photo Contest by Michele Fletcher, shows the assertiveness of bright red.

Red, say biologists studying the color, is the shade of dominance and warning among nonhuman animals, too. In one study, rhesus macaques avoided people wearing red tee shirts and caps, but approached people in green or blue. Biologists have learned that red coloration on the faces and rumps of male mandrills—large African monkeys—gives them an advantage in attracting mates. Moreover, red plastic rings attached to the legs of male zebra finches increase their dominance.

So on Valentine’s Day, stick with tradition and go for the red.

Ernest Thompson Seton aside, there is a human behavior other animals are not known to share: the celebration of holidays. Happy Valentine’s Day! And may your courtship rituals prove true to your dreams.

To see more photos likes those in this blog, visit the National Wildlife Photo Contest site. You can celebrate your love for nature by entering the 42nd annual NWF National Wildlife Photo Contest, which opens Tuesday, February 14.

Read more about animals and birds from the pages of National Wildlife magazine.

Elk graze peacefully outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a fitting image for NWF supporter Bonnie H., whose wish is for wildlife "to remain truly wild and with the full protection of their environment."

“Wishes for Wildlife” was the brainchild of NWF Membership Department staffers Jenn Watral and Margot Krieger, who thought a list of such wishes would reveal the issues and species that inhabit the dreams of NWF members and supporters.

Here is a small sample of the wishes we’ve received:

• “My wish is for immediate enlightenment and action by the human species to protect, preserve and respect the other species on this planet and to end the destruction of them and their habitats.” – Bonnie H.

• “I wish the world could see all wildlife as being the victims of our wasteful and consuming ways. They need our help in whatever way possible. But it takes all of humanity to care.” – Dan F.

• “With my heart, thoughts, and prayers I wish wildlife’s greatest enemy (Mankind) could appreciate how deeply our mutual survival is intertwined. Every gain is a boost for us all. Every loss will be felt far more than it seems at the time. It is painful to observe how slowly mankind comes to this knowledge. I pray we learn in time.” – Dawn M.

• “May all beings be safe and free from harm. May all beings be free. May every suffering be the door to an open heart. And may the open heart spring to action for every one.” – Elizabeth C.

• “My wish is that all wildlife be safe and happy in their homes…that all those working so hard to save our planet be given the strength and wisdom to continue their work…that all mankind work together to better our planet and stop endangering it.” – A.R.

Wishes may seem a pretty thin foundation on which to build an edifice of change for conservation. As someone once sort of said, if wishes were Ferraris we’d all drive home in style. But history shows us some impressive examples of people turning wishes into reality. Henry Ford wished he could build automobiles, the Wright brothers wished they could fly, and John F. Kennedy wished America could send astronauts to the moon and back.

Wishes help give us a direction, but action and resources give us results. Ideally, as we ring in the New Year, these wishes will inspire us to action on behalf of beleaguered wild creatures and wild places and will inspire support for and commitment to wildlife conservation. NWF presently has 4 million members and supporters. We—and wildlife—can always use more.

To share your wishes for wildlife or to see the wishes sent in by others, go to www.nwf.org/wishforwildlife

NWF has just launched a new online portal called “Choose Your Cause.” Just click on the cause you care about most and enjoy inspiring stories and photos from folks on-the-ground who are working tirelessly to protect the wildlife and wild places we all love.

A group of young Colorado chipmunk siblings takes an outing in this photo by George Aldridge, an entrant in NWF's annual photo contest.

We’re not here to talk about those chipmunks, though. We’re here to take a look at 10 things you probably don’t know about chipmunks that neither sing nor star in films. Real chipmunks. Ten things.

1. Chipmunks are basically tiny squirrels (1 to 5 ounces) that have adapted to burrowing. Other members of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) include woodchucks, prairie dogs, various ground squirrels and, of course, tree squirrels.
2. North America is home to 21 chipmunk species, according to the Smithsonian Institution.
3. Chipmunks produce one or two litters a year. Young are on their own within eight weeks.
4. Chipmunks prefer forested areas and can climb trees, shrubs and…birdfeeders.
5. They eat various types of seeds as well as fungus, helping to spread the mycorrhizal fungi that live around tree roots and are critical to tree survival. Chipmunks also spread the seeds of trees and other plants.
6. Chipmunks aren’t particularly choosey about what they eat. Along with seeds and fungi they scarf grain, fruit, nuts, insects, worms, bird eggs and even nestling birds and baby mice. They probably don’t hunt for eggs and hatchlings, just eat them when they find them.
7. They might not sing like Alvin and the boys, but wild chipmunks do vocalize. Kenneth Schmidt, a biologist at Texas Tech University who studies eastern chipmunks, recognizes three chipmunk calls, “the chip, the deeper chuck, and the startle call.” The last is an alarm that warns of impending danger. Chipmunks will even make calls in a chorus composed of several of the little rodents—shades of Alvin. Simon and Theodore. Hear how chipmunks sound.
8. 

   An eastern chipmunk in Masschusetts, photographed by Vladimir Mikhaylov, an NWF photo contest entrant, has packed its mouth with leaves for use in lining its nest.

   Ground-nesting veeries and ovenbirds, Schmidt recently discovered, avoid setting up house in areas where they hear chipmunk squeaks, thus reducing the risk that the squirrels will eat the birds’ eggs and young. Chipmunks also listen in on the alarm calls of other species, says Lisa Aschemeier, a biologist at Ohio’s Northwest State Community College. She has found that chipmunks respond to the high-pitched alarm whistles of their relative the woodchuck, sometimes seeking cover after a woodchuck warning. Woodchucks, she says, pay less attention to chipmunk alarms, presumably because, at up to 12 pounds, they are so much bigger and need not fear as many predators as chipmunks do.
9. In autumn, chipmunks gather seeds and other foods for storage as a supply of winter food. Some species keep food in their burrows, which can be more than 10 feet in length.
10. Alvin and the Chipmunks are now 53 years old. Wild chipmunks, on average, live two to three years; captive specimens have lasted eight.

Bonus Item: Chipmunk Hibernation

Chipmunks hibernate in winter, but they don’t sleep all the way through the season. They retreat to their burrows but wake every few days, raise their body temperatures to normal, feed on stored food rather than fat reserves, and urinate and defecate.

When chipmunks are in the deep sleep phase of hibernation, they may be very difficult to arouse. Their heart rate declines from about 350 beats per minute to perhaps 4. Body temperature may drop from 94 degrees F to whatever the temperature of the burrow—as cold as 40 degrees F.

A new study has found that as winter temperature heats up because of global warming, chipmunks in warmed areas become less likely to hibernate in the coldest months. The research indicates that chipmunks that follow normal hibernation procedures enjoy a survival rate through winter of about 87 percent, while those that remain active because of warm winter weather are almost certain to die by spring. The scientist who made this discovery, Craig Frank of Fordham University, fears that this evidence could suggest dire
results for other hibernating species as climate warms.

NOTE: All photos accompanying this blog were donated by entrants of the annual National Wildlife Federation Photo Contest. You can see the 2011 winners in Photo Zone.

NWF Executive Assistant Diana Kalaly makes calls to donors, expressing NWF's appreciation for their commitment to and interest in wildlife conservation.

I picture these NWF supporters as dedicated to protecting the natural world and to curbing the ecologically reckless excesses of human society. I imagine some of these benefactors living on limited fixed incomes but nevertheless determined to share their money with the cause of conservation. I think of such people every time my work requires me to spend NWF funds.

Until recently, I never had a chance to thank these contributors personally for their support. But this year, as Thanksgiving approaches, NWF offered staff the opportunity to phone individual donors directly and show our appreciation for their generosity.

Saying Thank You

As part of this process I phoned 30 people. Most of my contact with these folks came in the form of their answering machines, but the individuals with whom I actually talked seemed surprised that NWF would take the time to thank donors personally. From my perspective, I would suggest that it is a pity we can contact only a small fraction of the thousands of people who make the Federation’s work possible.

I talked with other staff who also made calls. Pat Raitt, NWF associate vice-president for development, said he was impressed with the enthusiasm he encountered when he reached donors. “One said, ‘Well, just so you know, we’re sending in a check this year, too,’” Raitt recalls. Another told him that she made NWF the beneficiary on her life insurance and “wanted to be sure we know it.”

Mark Wexler, editor of National Wildlife magazine, found that donors appreciated the calls. One told him that she gives to a number of groups, but NWF was the first to make a thank-you call. Another said, “It’s nice to get a call like this, where there is no motive other than to say thank you.”

Staff also enjoyed the nature of these calls. Garrit Voggesser, director of tribal lands in NWF’s Boulder, Colorado, office, said he was pleased with the opportunity to reach donors and supporters this way. “The holidays make a good time to pause in our work and thank these people for helping us get that work done,” he says.

One of the most moving calls was made by Diana Kalaly, an NWF executive assistant who is Hungarian by birth, when she reached a donor who is a 103-year-old doctor with a Hungarian surname. “After my quick thank you,” Diana told me, “he said: ‘This is wonderful, if you are just calling to say thank you. But if you are calling for more money, I usually wait until the second half of December to see how much money I have left after the holidays.’ I quickly reassured him that I was just calling to say thank you. He thanked me for pronouncing his name correctly, and guess what? It turns out he is Hungarian. From there we had a great conversation in Hungarian, and he said he thought it was very important to protect wildlife and he thanked me for the call. What are the odds of this happening?” 

Individual Members

I found that the calls helped me to get a better understanding of our donors and of their commitment to the NWF cause. Some radiated a personality that gave you a sense of why they were NWF partners. My favorite was a South Carolinian who declared via answering machine, “I’m out looking for the sun. I’ll get back to you if I find it.”

To the extent that the sun is a metaphor for better days, you might say that all of us who work for or support NWF are seeking a brighter future for wildlife, people and the planet. Consequently, the Federation observes Thanksgiving this year as a special moment in which staff can say thanks to all our partners in conservation for enabling our search for sunlight.

Donor Opportunities

Do you want to help conserve wildlife and wild places? NWF has just launched a new online portal called “Choose Your Cause.” Just click on the cause you care about most and enjoy inspiring stories from folks on the ground who are working tirelessly to protect the wildlife and wild places we all love.