Positively Posterior Quiz

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1. Hey! Take your eyes off that land manager’s tush! This question is about that autumn olive shrub he is planning to eradicate. How does the invasive shrub autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellate) spread so profusely?

A. The autumn olive shrub’s sticky fruit attaches to a mammal’s fur on butt, tail and all. Later the mammal grooms itself, and the autumn olive seeds are removed and possibly dropped a distance from its parent shrub.

19.6%

B. When a bird devours the fruit on an autumn olive shrub, the viable seeds pass through the bird’s digestive system - its gizzard, cloaca, and all. Seeds being defecated or dropped by birds often sprout and grow a distance from the shrub from which the bird fed.

80.4%

2. Go ahead, check out this cute red rump! Now identify the bird. Hints: During breeding season, this bird is found in woodland habitats of Illinois with a preference for large undisturbed tracts of forest.

A. Vermillion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus)

19.3%

B. Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea)

80.7%

3. You’d turn tail and skedaddle too if a raptor of equivalent size was fast approaching! How best might one describe the interaction between the pictured avian species?

A. The Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii) is hunting. The hawk’s intended prey, the greater prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus cupido), is fleeing.

30.4%

B. While fanning their tails during courtship display on a lek, the greater prairie-chickens are swooped upon by a northern harrier (Circus cyaneus). One prairie-chicken takes to flight with the harrier on its tail.

69.6%

4. “I get no respect” would surely be the dragonfly’s thoughts as its heinie is being observed by a scientist. What determination can the scientist make by examining the dragonfly’s terminal appendage?

A. Observation of the shape of any male dragonfly’s terminal appendages can aid in determination of species.

49.6%

B. Only members of the genus Cordulegaster with the common name “spiketails” have tail projections, which being sharp are used during predation. The existence of any such abdominal projections indicates a spiketail dragonfly.

50.4%

5. The baby’s bottom is always wet, in the case of the dragonfly. What is unique about the hind ends of dragonfly babies, called larvae or nymphs?

A. The aquatic nymph’s gills are located inside a special chamber called the “rectum” within its abdomen. For respiration, the nymph’s rear end serves as a siphon, drawing water in through the anus and expelling water out.

50.4%

B. A dragonfly nymph can abruptly contract muscles of its abdomen and forcefully expel gas and fecal matter from out of its rectum. The resulting turbidity and bubbles in the water serve to mask the nymph as it hides from a predator.

49.6%

6. “Bottoms up!” The mantra of a puddle duck! Why do these northern pintails (Anas acuta) and other puddle ducks tip their bodies in such a way?

A. Puddle ducks feed primarily in the middle of deep lakes where macro-invertebrates puddle together near the water’s surface. In fact, the ducks’ tipping behavior, called dabbling, can be quite frenzied during macro-invertebrates’ emergence when the water-bound larvae transform into aerial adults.

12.1%

B. Shallow water is a smorgasbord of vegetables (plants such as pondweed, milfoil and coontail) and meats (invertebrates such as snails and insect larvae); all that good food is within easy reach for upside-down puddle ducks as they dabble.

87.9%

7. “This is a real pain in the patootie!” – so says the honeybee with a stuck barbed stinger and a venom sack being ripped right out of its behind. But, this is no honeybee (Apis mellifera); it’s a cellophane bee (Colletes spp). Why is a Colletid called cellophane bee?

A. The Colletid bee plasters its underground chambers with a waterproof film that resembles cellophane and so prevents the collected nectar from leaking out.

87.8%

B. Tunneling just like a carpenter bee on wood, the Colletid bores into plastic, excavating a hole into vinyl siding as if it were as thin as cellophane.

12.2%

8. Which bird has such a lovely derrière?

A. Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)

88.3%

B. Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)

11.7%

9. It’s only right that this raccoon is leaving with its tail tucked between its legs. It raided my sweet corn patch! What other shameful tricks - or survival strategies - might a raccoon (Procyon lotor) do?

A. Out of the rear end of a raccoon comes scat full of seeds from persimmons which the raccoon may have acquired by climbing the fruit tree in autumn.

54.0%

B. Out the rear end of a raccoon comes a powerful bad smell which is secreted from musk glands and emitted through nipples in the anus, much like what’s done by another member of the family Mustelidae, the skunk.

46.0%

10. I’d recognize that dupa anywhere anytime! This eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) was caught on camera as it returned to its nest after dark. How does this bottom-of-the-food-chain critter with that conspicuous white tail avoid becoming rump roast for predators?

A. When frightened or pursued, the cottontail can really shake its booty, covering 10 to 15 feet in the first leaps and then hopping short distances in a zig-zag fashion.

85.2%

B. The cottontail rabbit is odorless, so a predator can not detect the rabbit’s path by following scent.

14.8%

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