Beaver Creek neither buys or sells monarch butterflies or caterpillars to the public for a number of reasons.
Photo by Ruth Forsgren.
Butterflies purchased on-line are generally from butterfly farms where mass rearing of monarchs takes place in one facility. Most of these farms are in the southern states. This can lead to several potential problems. Mass production, and crowding, makes it easy to transmit diseases especially among larvae. These diseases are often passed on to the adults - if they live that long. We don't want to spread diseases from a captive population in the southern U.S. to the wild monarchs that live around here. We could be introducing strains of pathogens to areas where they would not naturally occur.
Butterflies raised in captivity do not experience the wide range of environmental conditions (temperature, moisture, light intensity, day length, food sources, density, absence of predators, etc.) making them less fit to survive in the wild. We don't want to introduce inferior genetics into a population that depends on genetic vigor for survival.
Beaver Creek's entire mission is to educate people about nature. We are not a commercial operation dedicated to raising and selling butterfly eggs, larvae, or adults for profit. All of our butterflies (eggs through adult) are wild collected. We raise or collect them to populate our Butterfly House, for the sole purpose of educating the public about the wonderful world of butterflies.
So, we encourage you to collect your own eggs or caterpillars. Raise them, enjoy them for a time, learn about their life cycles, and release them back into the wild. It's a fantastic and captivating journey shared across generations. We are always happy to offer help and advice! Good luck and enjoy your time with the truly fascinating creatures we call butterflies!
“Why isn’t Beaver Creek Reserve having summer camps this
year?”
We’ve been getting this question a lot, well before WEAU
aired an interview about local summer camps moving online.Believe us, we wanted our camps to be able to
run as usual.Connecting people with nature is much, much easier if you’re able to get said people out in nature.
So why couldn’t our camps be held in-person?
First, the Eau Claire Area School District is our major
partner in offering summer camps.We
have a contract with them in which they pay the costs for their students to
attend specific camps. These camps make
up most of our camp revenue in the summer.With ECASD deciding that summer school and camps would be held in a
virtual format, it made sense to follow their lead and offer all our camps
virtually.
Second, we start planning for summer camps in the late
fall.That means that when camps were
canceled in May, we had to react rather quickly.At the time, we had to base our decision on
how to run camps, according to the prevailing COVID-19 restrictions, as well as
state and county orders.Even with the
loosened restrictions, running camps at our normal capacity would be extremely
challenging.
Nature Nuts campers, ages 5-6 on a bird-watching hike in 2019.
As our naturalist explained, while we were talking through
options for camps, if she were to run a camp with ten kids, and take them on a
nature hike, under social distancing regulations, that would have made the last
hiker inline 60 feet away from the leader.Unless our naturalists used megaphones the last kids in line wouldn’t be able to hear anything.This would require volunteers to help relay
information and quite literally keep kids on the right track. Not to mention how wildlife in the area might react to the megaphone noise.
Additionally, our Discovery Room is often used for camp
instruction and activity and as a back up for inclement weather. At present, The Scheels Discovery Room is still closed.Bleach and other harsher chemicals that kill the coronavirus are not
safe for the animals, furs, taxidermy, or displays in the Nature Center.We would not have been able to use the room
for instruction or as a rain back up. Being inside presents its own challenges. At the time we had to make decisions for camps, we could not even count on inside areas
as an option for camp use. These are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg
when it came to logistical challenges that COVID-19 created in trying to
operate in-person summer camps.
Earlier we mentioned volunteers, people we rely heavily on
at Beaver Creek Reserve.In the average
It takes a lot of volunteers to run each of our camps.
year, volunteers give enough hours to fill 2.5 positions at BCR!Many, not all, of our volunteers, are in the
high-risk age range.This continues to
be a concern for us as we work to complete projects at Beaver Creek. For this
reason, our Butterfly House will be unstaffed for the first time in 14 years.Additionally, we will not be utilizing our
caterpillar lab, instead, volunteers will be raising Monarchs for us at home.
At the time we were working on our new camps, quarantine
restrictions were already being lifted.But this begged the question, what if a full quarantine was
re-established?There were just so many
unknowns. For all these reasons and more, we realized that the safest way to
hold our camps this year was online.
Despite the changes and challenges, we are really proud of the fun line-up of camp offerings for the
summer. Several camps in partnership
with the ECASD and those open to students of any district are now on our
website and registration is open. We are
finalizing a few more camps with fun themes including photography, owls,
fireflies, butterflies, geocaching, and more!
Camp fees for ECASD students are paid, but a materials fee still applies
and is required. For non-ECASD sponsored
camps, materials are included in the registration fee.
For the preschool and early childhood age, we suggest you
check out our partnered camps through Lily Pad Lab.They are holding a series of online “Tiny Scientist”
Camps.
Thank you for your understanding and support as we navigate
these unusual times.While our
naturalists are excited to see you across their screens, they are also counting
the days until they can see their campers in-person!
Missing our in-person camps and programs? Check out our YouTube Channel and our program calendar for virtual camps and programs.
Northern Prairie Skink (image by A.B. Sheldon - WDNR)
Many times when I am talking to groups about reptiles,
people are surprised that Wisconsin has lizards that make their homes here.
Generally speaking, most lizards prefer warmer, drier habitats than other
reptiles. But there are four species that can be found in Wisconsin. Now compared
to hot, dry Arizona with at least 45 species it doesn’t seem like much; but,
also consider that Phoenix, Arizona has an average yearly temperature of about
74°F and Wisconsin’s
yearly average temperature is about 47°F.
There are over 4600 species of lizards in the world and they
come in all sizes; ranging from the smallest, the Dwarf Gecko measuring in at
.6 inches to the massive Komodo Dragon that can reach ten feet long and weigh
over 200 pounds. Characteristics shared by most lizards include: smooth, dry
skin, moveable eyelids, external ear openings and if they have toes then they
have claws. (Salamanders, who are amphibians and are often mistaken for
lizards, do not have nails on their toes.)
Photo from WDNR - By A.B. Sheldon
Many lizards have a cool trick to escape predators called
autotomy. This means that they can lose part of their body. And, in the case of
lizards it is their tail. If grabbed by the tail the lizard can break off
part
of the tail, this piece has special muscles that allow it to wiggle and twitch
after it comes off of the body. Hopefully this wiggling piece of tail distracts
the predator long enough that the lizard can escape. Most lizards can regrow
the tail but it is never as long or useful as the original one. Scientists have
been busy studying how this works in hopes of unlocking the key to tissue
regrowth.
The four species of lizards that call Wisconsin home have
some traits in common. All of them require habitats with sandy soils that allow
them to make burrows for homes, escape routes and hibernation. They have the
shortest active season of any of Wisconsin’s Herptiles (group name that
includes amphibians and reptiles). Typically, they are dormant for seven to
eight months of the year becoming active in very late April or early May and many
leaving the scene in early September. Our lizards are mostly insectivores, which
Six-lined Racerunner hatchling (from WDNR by A.B. sheldon)
means they eat insect-like things, for example crickets, beetles, spiders and
slugs. All four species of lizards are oviparous, meaning that they lay eggs
outside of the mother’s body. The three species with legs all are born with
blue tails. So let’s learn a bit more about each species.
Five-lined Skink (image from WDNR by A.B. Sheldon)
Common Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon
fasciatus), like almost all skinks have shiny, smooth scales covering the
body. Adults average five to eight inches in length and that includes the tail.
The juveniles and young females usually have black bodies with five yellow
stripes. In all ages the middle dorsal (back or upper-side) stripe continues
onto the head where it branches making a “Y”.As females age the background color fades from black to brown, the
stripes become more tannish and the tail becomes a more muted blue/gray color.
Adult males are a tan or olive color with the stripes continuing to fade as
they age. Adults males have no blue in their tail and this is used as a signal
to breeding males to chase away other skinks that lack blue tail color. During
breeding season, the males head will become a reddish-orange color. Their
habitats include oak/pine barrens, edges of dry hardwood forests or grassy
openings in these woods. They tend to search out damp microhabitats, like
rotting logs and stumps. The five-lined skink can also climb into lower
branches of trees to hunt their prey. I personally think it would be cool to
find a lizard up a tree during one of my nature hikes.
Prairie Skink (image from WDNR by A.B. Sheldon)
The second of our skinks is the Prairie Skink (Plestiodon septentrionalis). Prairie
Skinks are a species of special concern in WI. They are found in just a few
counties in the NW part of the state; however, they become more common as you
move westward into the Great Plains. Prairie Skinks are found in areas with
sandy soil in bracken grasslands or pine barrens. They are also found in open
sandy banks along rivers and streams. They create burrow systems for quick
escape from predators like hawks, owls, raccoons and snakes. The dorsal side of
Prairie Skinks have three tan or light brown stripes separated by two narrow
black lines, while the sides have three dark lines separated by two narrow
white stripes. During the breeding season males have bright orange chins, lips
and throats.
Six-lined Racerunner (from WDNR by Heather Kaarakka)
Our third lizard is Wisconsin’s representative member of the
whiptail lizards, the Six-lined Racerunner (Aspidoscelis
sexlineatus). They are also a species of special concern in the state. The
The racerunners have earned their name being
fast runners clocked at 18 m.p.h.
racerunner measures about 9.5 inches including the tail, has a pointed snout
and a long slender tail. They have six narrow, pale yellow to greenish-yellow
stripes that run from the head to base of the tail. They have fine scales on
the body and are not shiny like a skink. Their heads have enlarged plate-like
scales that are brown to greenish-blue. They are found in dry and bluff prairie
habitats with sandy or loose soil and scattered vegetation.
Slender Glass Lizard (image from WDNR by A.B. Sheldon)
Our last lizard, the Slender Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus), is listed as
endangered in WI. Although glass lizards do not have legs they are still
lizards not snakes; they have moveable eyelids, external ear openings and the
body is more rigid than a snake. Slender Glass Lizards can reach 30 inches in
length and about 2/3 of that is tail. The color can vary from tan, to buff or
even bronze with dark stripes on the top and sides. Slender Glass Lizards live
in oak savannas, sand prairies and old fields with loose sandy soils that allow
them to force their way into and create burrows for overwintering. They can be
found in south central to some of the western counties in the state.
So while Wisconsin may not have a lot of lizards it is still
really cool that we have habitats that will support these four!
