Spotlight on
Nature
by David Lane
Indiana Master
Naturalist
In my years as a sportsman I have
heard a good many wive’s tales. Some
are so ridiculous I can’t help but laugh.
Others, especially those that wrongfully persecute animals, are not quite as
funny at all. We humans have always
had a quirk about unanswered questions. Mysteries make us feel insecure,
often to the point where we will accept
even ludicrous explanations for them.
Most old wives’ tales about the
outdoors stemmed from “educated
guesses” made by early settlers and
or pioneers who were familiar with
the animals and their environment
but had no hard, scientific evidence to
answer their questions. So they made
up their own conclusions. Even today
we do not have all the answers (and at
the rate we are destroying our planet,
we may never get them), but the huge
storehouse of natural information we
have amassed is sufficient to disprove
nearly all of the myths that have been
passed down from generation to generation. The following collection of old
wives’ tales (most of them perpetrated
by men) still persist today. I will be
brief on some of these because I could
really go into great detail and I don’t
have a lot of space to cover it all.
Porcupines throw their quills
when attacked. This is false. Normally solitary, a porcupine is covered
Wildlife inspires a host
of myths, this month we will
explore some of these old
wives’ tales and set the truth
straight right from the get-go.
with roughly thirty thousand needlesharp barbed quills. Most of them are
concentrated on its thick, muscular
tail. The loosely attached quills can be
voluntarily released when an attacker
touches them, but at no time do they
take flight. This myth was probably
created to keep children a safe distance
from the porky’s lighting-fast tail,
which it uses to slap potential enemies
that approach within striking distance.
My observations and further study
have proved that they are unwilling,
and even reluctant, to use their spiny
weapons on humans unless provoked
in the extreme.
Embedded porcupine quills will
work themselves further and further into a victim’s body, eventually
killing him. False again. Unremoved
quills often result in serious infection,
and an animal with a mouth full of
quills may starve to death because it
can’t eat, but the quills will not work
themselves deeper.
Porcupine meat has worms in
it. To me this is the most ridiculous
of the porcupine myths. Not only is it
not true, I can find no reason for its
existence unless maybe it was fabricated to protect the porcupine from
humans. The porcupine is easy prey
for humans; a sharp blow across its
nose will usually kill it instantly. I have
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found that after visiting the northern
part of Michigan, I can actually walk
right up to one of these creatures. They
do not seem to be frightened of human
presence. In any case, porcupine meat
does not contain worms.
The age of a whitetail deer can
be determined by the size of its
antlers. Totally untrue. Biologists
disproved this belief several years ago,
but for some reason it still remains
a widely-touted “fact” among many
hunters. Antlers, which are temporary and should not be confused with
the permanent horns grown by some
hoofed animals, require an abundance
of nutritious food to attain the stately
growth form we recognize as a trophy
rack. Bucks that are not well fed and
do not get enough variety in their diet
simply will not take in enough of the
nutrients required for maximum antler
growth. It is not uncommon for a
young buck to grow a magnificent pair
of antlers, especially in area of heavy
commercial farming, while an older
buck living exclusively on wild vegetation may achieve little more than a set
of tined spikes. Tooth development,
wear and deterioration can be used as
an accurate indicator of age, but antler
size tells only how well the animal has
been eating.
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The Hometown Treasure · Feb. ‘12 · pg 21