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Our Global Gallivants
Went out for lunch today. You can only drive by Church's chicken so many times before you have to stop, so it was fried chicken for lunch. Mmmm, better than KFC for sure.
Dave decided that he needed to start walking more, so today we went to Weedon Island Preserve. It is a natural ecosystem on Tampa Bay. It's a great place to walk-a boardwalk raised above the swampy mangrove, paved path and a sand pathway. The first critters that we saw were some fairly big fish swimming by one of the lookouts. In the same area the mullet fish were jumping out of the water. There are a couple of theories as to why they do this; to get more oxygen in their gills in poorly oxygenated water, or to escape predators. I can only guess that the reason today was poor oxygenation of the water.
It was a really nice walk on the sandy path. Just when I was saying that we hadn't seen any animals, we spot an armadillo beside the path! That definitely wasn't something we were expecting. It was a nine plate armadillo and the reason for the name is the 9 breaks in its armour so that it can flex its stiff leathery plate. It didn't take long to figure out that they have poor vision. They usually feed at night, so that was strange. They dig burrows to hide from their predators, and those burrows will have several entrances. They make quite a mess as they snuffle around digging burrows and looking for food.
If you startle an armadillo, they will jump high in the air and then run for their burrow. Good thing we didn't try that, since armadillos are the only known animals to carry leprosy. Apparently they also spit and contacting their fluids could transmit the disease. In The first 6 months of 2015, 9 cases of leprosy were diagnosed in Florida, prompting warnings to stay clear of them. There are usually about 100 cases of leprosy diagnosed in all the US in a year. It is curable, but can take 5-20 years to manifest and requires a 6 month to 2 year course of antibiotics.
Armadillos have some weird behaviour. Pregnant females always give birth to identical quadruplets. She produces one egg that splits into four identical offspring that are either all female or all male.
If they need to cross a narrow body of water, they will walk along the bottom under the water, but if it's a wide body of water they will inflate their stomach to twice its size and float across. I think if I was swimming and saw one of them float by I would probably have a stroke.
There are signs in the bathroom on Honeymoon Island and a few other beaches warning you to shuffle your feet along the bottom when entering the water so you don't accidentally step on a stingray.
Steps on the fitness tracker: 11,500
Dave decided that he needed to start walking more, so today we went to Weedon Island Preserve. It is a natural ecosystem on Tampa Bay. It's a great place to walk-a boardwalk raised above the swampy mangrove, paved path and a sand pathway. The first critters that we saw were some fairly big fish swimming by one of the lookouts. In the same area the mullet fish were jumping out of the water. There are a couple of theories as to why they do this; to get more oxygen in their gills in poorly oxygenated water, or to escape predators. I can only guess that the reason today was poor oxygenation of the water.
It was a really nice walk on the sandy path. Just when I was saying that we hadn't seen any animals, we spot an armadillo beside the path! That definitely wasn't something we were expecting. It was a nine plate armadillo and the reason for the name is the 9 breaks in its armour so that it can flex its stiff leathery plate. It didn't take long to figure out that they have poor vision. They usually feed at night, so that was strange. They dig burrows to hide from their predators, and those burrows will have several entrances. They make quite a mess as they snuffle around digging burrows and looking for food.
If you startle an armadillo, they will jump high in the air and then run for their burrow. Good thing we didn't try that, since armadillos are the only known animals to carry leprosy. Apparently they also spit and contacting their fluids could transmit the disease. In The first 6 months of 2015, 9 cases of leprosy were diagnosed in Florida, prompting warnings to stay clear of them. There are usually about 100 cases of leprosy diagnosed in all the US in a year. It is curable, but can take 5-20 years to manifest and requires a 6 month to 2 year course of antibiotics.
Armadillos have some weird behaviour. Pregnant females always give birth to identical quadruplets. She produces one egg that splits into four identical offspring that are either all female or all male.
If they need to cross a narrow body of water, they will walk along the bottom under the water, but if it's a wide body of water they will inflate their stomach to twice its size and float across. I think if I was swimming and saw one of them float by I would probably have a stroke.
There are signs in the bathroom on Honeymoon Island and a few other beaches warning you to shuffle your feet along the bottom when entering the water so you don't accidentally step on a stingray.
Steps on the fitness tracker: 11,500
- comments
Val The armadillo was pretty cool. They are goofy looking things. And leprosy...OMG that's serious business. No alligators?
Bea Ching If I saw an alligator that wasn't behind a fence, I don't think I'd hang around long enough to take a pic!